Ronin partnered with Drip to launch Jin’s Fortune Spin, a marketplace feature where users spin capsules containing NFTs or Pokémon cards. Users are then able to sell their prizes immediately back to Jin.
Rocket Pool launched on Ronin, introducing decentralized ETH liquid staking and expanding the network’s DeFi utility.
Axie Marketplace captured 66.2% of NFT trading volume in Q2, reinforcing its dominance as OpenSea and Ronin Market volumes declined.
Ragnarok Landverse’s NFT sale was 29,800% oversubscribed, with 14.9 million RON committed, making it one of the standout mints of the quarter.
Fishing Frenzy's daily active addresses grew over 8,000% in Q2, as the title gained momentum following its partnership with Ronin.
Primer
Ronin is a Layer-1 blockchain developed by Sky Mavis to address scalability challenges in Web3 gaming ecosystems, particularly for Axie Infinity. Initially using a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus model, Ronin transitioned to Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) in 2023 to improve decentralization while maintaining efficient transaction processing. The 2024 Goda Upgrade further enhanced decentralization with Rotating Validators and separated block production from finality voting. Designed with developers in mind, Ronin is fully EVM-compatible, supporting tools such as Remix and Hardhat for streamlined integration. As well as adopting Chainlink’s CCIP. The adoption of CCIP enhances the security of bridged assets and simplifies cross-chain token transfers. CCIP’s capabilities include programmable token transfers, cross-chain messaging, and future-proof scalability, offering developers seamless interoperability and additional use cases such as cross-chain NFTs and DeFi applications.
In 2025, Ronin launched Open Ronin through Project Leviosa, transitioning from a curated, gaming-centric chain to a fully permissionless blockchain. The upgrade enabled unrestricted smart contract deployment across DeFi, infrastructure, and consumer applications, expanding Ronin’s scope beyond gaming while preserving its strong community roots.
Ronin’s financial metrics declined QoQ in Q2, with the market cap falling 32.3% from $430.3 million to $291.9 million, while circulating supply increased 65.4% over the same period. Despite the decline, Ronin expanded its DeFi and gaming offerings following its transition to permissionless infrastructure. New additions, including Rocket Pool and Fishing Frenzy, offer users new ways to engage onchain.
Market Cap and Price
The RON token declined during Q2’25, alongside broader weakness in Ronin’s financial metrics. RON fell 34.8% QoQ, from $0.69 to $0.45. While the token continued to face sell pressure, the decline was less severe than in Q1, when RON dropped 64.1%.
Network Overview
Ronin saw a broad decline in network activity in Q2 2025, with active addresses, total transactions, and token holders all falling QoQ. Total transactions dropped 37.0%, from 85.5 million to 53.9 million. The number of RON holders declined 13.3%, from 89,100 to 77,200 by quarter’s end.
Usage
Ronin’s active user base declined in Q2 2025. Average daily new users fell 57.5% QoQ, from 14,198 in Q1 to 6,028 in Q2, while average daily active users declined 47.6%, from 575,249 to 301,172. Despite these declines, Ronin still added over 548,000 new addresses during the quarter, reflecting continued onboarding momentum.
Transactions
Average daily transactions declined 37.6%, from 948,970 in Q1 to 591,923 in Q2. Average daily fees fell 65.6%, from $2,872 to $985 over the same period. Despite the slowdown, Ronin maintained meaningful engagement, with multiple days exceeding 500,000 transactions.
NFT marketplace volume
Ronin’s NFT marketplace volume rose 13.0% QoQ, from $13.5 million in Q1 to $15.3 million in Q2. The Axie Marketplace accounted for 16.1% of total marketplace volume at $2.4 million, down 65.8% from $7.2 million in Q1. Ronin Market volume declined 13.9%, from $5.9 million to $5.1 million, representing 33.3% of total NFT volume on Ronin. OpenSea, which launched on Ronin at the end of Q1, captured 50.6% of total marketplace volume with $7.7 million in Q2. Floor prices for major NFT collections such as Sabong Saga increased, likely driven by the launch of Jin’s Fortune Spin. The gacha-style feature allowed users to win popular NFTs and Pokémon cards, boosting demand for certain collections.
New Contracts
On Feb. 12, 2025, Ronin transitioned to a permissionless smart contract model, allowing any developer to deploy applications without prior approval. In Q2, contract deployments averaged 172 per day, down 29.6% from 244 in the previous quarter.
Ecosystem Overview
In Q2’25 stablecoin market cap on Ronin rose by 8.9% QoQ from $24.5 million to $26.7 million. This is the first time in over a year that Ronin has experienced a positive increase in stablecoin market cap.
Total Value Locked (TVL)
Despite DeFi TVL in RON increasing 35.2% QoQ, due to the decline in RON price, TVL in USD dropped 13.1% QoQ, declining from $64.7 million to $56.2 million.
Katana
Katana V3, introduced in Q4 2024, has continued to gain adoption as part of Ronin’s DeFi expansion. Katana V3 introduced concentrated liquidity pools, enabling more efficient capital allocation and reducing exposure to impermanent loss. In Q2, Katana V3 accounted for 44.8% of total volume on Katana, up 29.9% QoQ, up from 14.8% in Q1.
In Q2 2025, Axie Infinity led all protocols on Ronin by daily active addresses. Despite an 8.2% decline QoQ, it still averaged 101,614 daily active addresses. Other notable standouts included Lumiterra, which grew 3,608.3% to 32,040, and Fishing Frenzy, which increased 8,347.2% to 3,041 daily active addresses. Gaming continues to be the main attraction on Ronin as older games such as Axie Infinity continue to hold their player base while new games quickly gain traction among users.
Ecosystem and Network expansion
Pixel Universe and Runiverse
On April 3, 2025, Pixels and Forgotten Runiverse announced a partnership to enable PIXEL utility across both ecosystems. The event allowed players to earn and spend PIXEL in Runiverse, unlocking in-game boosts, cosmetics, and exclusive items. Players used the native resource in Runiverse, QUANTA, and redeemed it for PIXEL. The official event went live on May 5, 2025.
Cambria The Paymasters Event
On April 11, 2025, Cambria launched The Paymasters, the second season of its game. The 14-day event required players to mint a 56 RON Royal Charter to participate, with rewards including a 10,000 RON prize for completing taskboard challenges. The Royal Charter granted access to rewards and regenerated daily energy for gameplay.
Fishing Frenzy and Sky Mavis Alliance
On April 23, 2025, Sky Mavis, developer of Axie Infinity, announced its first post-opening game studio partnership with Fishing Frenzy. The alliance grants Fishing Frenzy access to Sky Mavis’ publishing, marketing, and technical resources.
Ragnarok Landverse Sale
On April 23, 2025, Ragnarok launched its Landverse sale, a three-step sale that included a raffle, a whitelist phase, and a final first-come, first-served phase. Ragnarok experienced strong interest in its first raffle phase, which was 29,800% oversubscribed, with over 14.9 million RON being committed to the sale. This first raffle-style phase garnered the most attention, with many users choosing to participate. Since minting, Landverse has settled at a 428 RON floor price, up significantly from its original 200 RON mint price.
Forgotten Runiverse Dungeon Run
On April 24, 2025, Forgotten Runiverse kicked off its limited-time Dungeon Run event, running through until May 1, offering players the chance to earn up to 250 million QUANTA, Land NFTs, and Mana. Players who completed all dungeons receive a guaranteed 200 million QUANTA airdrop, while newcomers can earn an additional 50 million by completing a single quest.
Each dungeon completion also granted entry into daily and grand prize raffles, with rewards including Homestead and Settlement Land NFTs.
Rocket Pool launches on Ronin
On May 20, 2025, Rocket Pool, Ethereum’s leading decentralized liquid staking protocol, is now live on Ronin. Users can hold RETH on Ronin to earn ETH staking yield, marking the introduction of Ethereum-native staking rewards to the Ronin ecosystem.
A new RETH–WETH liquidity pool is available on Katana V3, offering boosted rewards via the Ronin Blitz program. This integration expands Ronin’s DeFi capabilities and provides new opportunities to combine staking yield with liquidity provisioning and other DeFi strategies.
Jin’s Fortune Spin
Ronin Market launched Jin’s Fortune Spin, a gamified capsule feature that lets users spin for randomized collectibles using 15 RON or $10 USDC. Each capsule reveals one NFT, which users can claim, spin again, or sell back for a fixed price.
Jin’s Fortune Spin gained initial traction on Ronin, earning $682,000 in 46 days. The gamified capsule system allowed users to win Pokémon cards and popular NFTs such as Origin Axies, Pixels Farm Land, Sabong Saga, Fishing Frenzy, Pokémon cards, and others. Capsules are divided between two machines, Axie Machine and Ronin Machine, each with distinct prize sets.
The drop system uses verifiable onchain randomness (VRF), with transparent odds and trackable transactions. Jin’s Fortune Spin launched with partner Drip, a live‑streaming collectibles marketplace that specializes in interactive shopping experiences for trading card and pop‑culture collectors.
DeFi Expansion and Updates
Ronin DeFi Blitz
On April 3, 2025, Ronin initiated a $3.0 million DeFi incentive program to expand protocol liquidity and user participation. The campaign introduced a new Ronin Blitz Rewards Dashboard, built in partnership with Merkl, where users can discover and claim rewards across DeFi protocols. With the blitz, Ronin added boosted APRs across multiple Katana V3 pools (RON, WETH, USDC, LRON) with additional incentives that were available for supplying or borrowing WETH on Compound, marking the launch of Ronin’s first money market.
Technical Updates
Ronin wallet updates
Ronin Wallet integrated Blockaid’s transaction simulation and application scanner to enhance user protection. The simulator previews transactions before signing, flagging risks such as MEV bots, malicious contracts, and wallet drainers. A new in-wallet event calendar also launched, helping users track upcoming mints, presales, and in-game events.
Batch NFT Transfers
On April 14, 2025, Ronin launched batch NFT transfer functionality in its web wallet. This allows users to send up to 20 NFTs from the same collection in a single transaction, reducing gas costs and streamlining NFT management.
Trait Offers
On April 17, 2025, Ronin Market introduced Trait Offers, enabling buyers to place bids on NFTs with specific attributes across a collection. This feature streamlines NFT discovery and improves liquidity by allowing sellers with matching traits to fulfill offers instantly.
To celebrate, Ronin launched the Night Market Contest, where users submit trait-focused NFT ads for a chance to win from a 550 RON prize pool.
Ronin completes CCIP migration
On April 25, 2025, Ronin completed its migration to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), finalizing the transition of over $450.0 million in token value from its deprecated bridge. The move establishes CCIP as Ronin’s canonical cross-chain solution, enabling secure transfers for assets such as AXS, USDC, WETH, SLP, PIXEL, and WBTC.
CCIP enhances security via decentralized oracle networks and a risk management layer, while simplifying cross-chain transfers through its Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard. A new WBTC contract is also now live, requiring a 1:1 token swap for continued bridging functionality.
Closing Summary
In Q2 ’25, Ronin experienced a decline across financial and network metrics, with market cap falling 32.3% and average daily active users declining 47.6%. Network activity also slowed, as daily transactions dropped 37.6%. NFT marketplace volumes increased 13.02% QoQ, likely due to the introduction of Opensea and the implementation of Jin’s Fortune Spin.
At the same time, Ronin’s permissionless smart contract model continued to perform as intended, averaging 171.5 new deployments per day in Q2. Ecosystem expansion was further supported by the $3.0 million DeFi Blitz program, Rocket Pool integration, and Katana V3 upgrades. Consumer-facing innovations, including Jin’s Fortune Spin and new NFT trading features, reinforced Ronin’s focus on gaming-driven adoption. With ongoing progress in DeFi infrastructure, NFT market enhancements, and interoperability through Chainlink CCIP, Ronin remains positioned as a leading gaming-focused blockchain, balancing community growth with ecosystem diversification.
This report was commissioned by Ronin Network S.A. All content was produced independently by the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Messari, Inc. or the organization that requested the report. The commissioning organization may have input on the content of the report, but Messari maintains editorial control over the final report to retain data accuracy and objectivity. Author(s) may hold cryptocurrencies named in this report. This report is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. You should conduct your own research and consult an independent financial, tax, or legal advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance of any asset is not indicative of future results. Please see our Terms of Service for more information.
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Gunkan is a Research Analyst at Messari with a focus on gaming, DeFi, and memecoins. He began working in crypto in 2022, with prior experience at Crypto.com and Cointelegraph.
Gunkan is a Research Analyst at Messari with a focus on gaming, DeFi, and memecoins. He began working in crypto in 2022, with prior experience at Crypto.com and Cointelegraph.
