According to recent data, revenue in the crypto industry is increasingly flowing into user-facing applications rather than the underlying blockchain networks, signaling a possible shift in where investors and developers are focusing their attention.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications now capture five times the fees generated by blockchains, according to data shared by Jamies Coutts, chief crypto analyst at crypto intelligence platform Real Vision.
The trend suggests that a greater share of the sector’s costs will be absorbed by DeFi applications such as wallets, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and other protocols, while the underlying networks will attract a smaller share of revenue.
“While I firmly believe that the network effects of blockchain will always deliver value, it stands to reason that more value than what is currently attributed should drift to the front end – wallets, DeFi apps and protocols closest to users,” Coutts wrote in a Thursday X-post.
Source: Jamie Coutts
The chart shows a significant increase in the share of fees captured by DeFi protocols, from approximately parity in mid-2024.
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DeFi apps and protocols become the blockchain industry’s 17 biggest earners
Data collected by DeFiLlama shows that DeFi protocols now dominate the rankings of the top-grossing crypto products. The seventeen largest fee-generating entities over the past 30 days were applications or protocols rather than base-layer blockchains.
Solana has collected more than $20.4 million in fees over the past 30 days and was the only blockchain in the top 20. However, this pales in comparison to the $563 million generated by stablecoin issuer Tether, the leading protocol in fees, according to DeFiLlama.
Top protocols and chains based on fees generated in the last 30 days. Source: DeFiLlama
Ethereum was the only other blockchain to make the top 30, with $10.3 million generated in 27th place.
The dynamics suggest that developers and institutional investors may be paying increasing attention to DeFi apps rather than the underlying blockchain layer, as applications attract a growing share of total revenue.
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Blockchains by active users, 30-day chart. Source: Nansen
Solana’s lead among chains can be attributed to its activity, as Solana was the most used network, with more than 68 million active addresses in the last 30 days, up 14%, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
Ethereum ranked sixth, with 13 million active monthly addresses, up 53% in the past 30 days.
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