The truth about the crypto printing press: Still want to make money in 2026? Focus on these three main directions

Author: Prathik Desai

Original Title: Crypto’s Revenue Recipe

Translation and Editing: BitpushNews

I have always enjoyed the “seasonal” traditions within the crypto community. For example, Uptober (October surge) or Recktober (October dip). Community members often like to throw out a lot of statistics around these milestones. After all, humans are naturally fond of cold facts, aren’t they?

And trend analysis and reports based on these data points are even more interesting. You can always hear arguments like: “This time, ETF fund flows are completely different”; “Crypto industry financing finally matured this year”; “BTC is already preparing for a rally this year,” and so on.

Recently, while reading a report titled State of DeFi 2025, I was drawn to several charts showing how crypto protocols generate “solid revenue.”

These charts displayed the top protocols by revenue over the past year. They proved a recurring industry discussion: that the crypto industry is finally starting to see “generating income” as a very attractive thing. But what exactly is reshaping this revenue landscape?

Behind these charts, there’s a lesser-known story worth exploring: where do the collected fees (Fees) ultimately flow?

I delved into DefiLlama’s fee and revenue data (revenue here refers to the remaining fees after paying liquidity providers and vendors), trying to find answers.

In this quantitative analysis, I will attempt to add some dimensions to these numbers, showing you how funds flow in the crypto world and where they end up.

2025: Revenue doubles, old giants still dominate

Last year, total revenue generated by crypto protocols exceeded $16 billion, more than doubling from about $8 billion in 2024.

Value capture capability continues to expand across the entire crypto industry. Over the past 12 months, decentralized finance (DeFi) has seen the emergence of many new categories, such as decentralized exchanges (DEX), launchpad platforms, and perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEXs).

However, the “profit centers” with the highest revenue remain concentrated in the traditional categories—most notably, stablecoin issuers.

The two major stablecoin giants, Tether and Circle, accounted for over 60% of the total industry revenue throughout the year. By 2025, this proportion slightly declined from about 65% the previous year to 60%.

But, the achievements of perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEXs) in 2025 are definitely not to be underestimated—remember, they were almost “invisible” in 2024. Hyperliquid, EdgeX, Lighter, and Axiom together contributed 7% to 8% of the industry’s total revenue, far surpassing the combined total of mature DeFi categories like lending, staking, cross-chain bridges, and DEX aggregators.

Revenue engine of 2026: Spreads, execution, and distribution

So, what will drive revenue in 2026? I found the answer in three core factors that influenced last year’s revenue concentration: Carry (Interest Spread), Execution, and Distribution.

1. Carry Trading

Carry trading means that whoever holds and transfers funds can earn returns through this holding and transferring process.

The revenue model of stablecoin issuers is both “structural” and “fragile.”

• Structural: because it expands with supply and circulation. Every digital dollar they hold is backed by government bonds, which can generate interest.
• Fragile: because this model depends on a macro variable almost beyond their control: the Federal Reserve’s interest rate. And the “rate cut wave” has just begun. As rates further decline this year, the dominant position of stablecoin issuers’ revenue will also weaken.

2. Execution

This is where DeFi protocols build perpetual contracts (Perp DEXs), and it was also the most successful DeFi category in 2025.

The simplest way to understand why perpetual contract exchanges can rapidly gain market share is to see how they help users execute actions. They create a space that allows users to enter or exit risk at any time based on demand, with minimal friction. Even in less volatile markets, users can hedge, leverage trade, arbitrage, rotate funds, or simply research and open positions for future layouts.

Unlike spot DEXs, they allow continuous, high-frequency trading without the inconvenience of moving underlying assets.

Although “execution” sounds simple and extremely fast, there’s much more beneath the surface. These contract exchanges must build a robust trading interface that won’t crash under high load, host a matching and liquidation system that can stand firm amid market chaos, and provide enough liquidity depth to attract traders. In perpetual contract exchanges, liquidity is the “secret sauce.” Whoever can provide sustained and sufficient liquidity will attract the highest trading activity.

In 2025, Hyperliquid dominated the contract exchange space by attracting the largest number of market makers to provide ample liquidity. As a result, Hyperliquid held an absolute dominance in fee collection for 10 out of 12 months last year.

Ironically, the success of these DeFi contract exchanges is precisely because they don’t require traders to understand blockchain and smart contracts, making their operation more like familiar traditional exchanges.

Once these issues are addressed, exchanges can generate “autonomous” income by charging marginal fees on high-frequency, high-volume trading activities. Even if spot prices stagnate, this situation will persist, simply because there are many options available for traders on the platform.

This is why I believe that, although contract exchanges only accounted for single-digit revenue share last year, they are the only category capable of remotely challenging stablecoin issuers’ dominance.

3. Distribution

The third factor—distribution—drives incremental revenue for crypto projects (like token issuance infrastructure). Think of pump.fun and LetsBonk.

This is not very different from what we see in Web2 companies. Although Airbnb and Amazon do not own any inventory, their strong distribution capabilities help them surpass the role of “aggregators” and reduce the marginal cost of adding new supply.

Crypto issuance infrastructure similarly does not own assets created through its platform (such as memecoins, tokens, and micro-communities). However, by making user journeys frictionless, automating onboarding, providing ample liquidity, and simplifying trading, it becomes the default place for creating crypto assets.

In 2026, two questions may determine the trajectory of these revenue drivers: as interest rate cuts erode carry trading, will stablecoin revenue share fall below 60%? As the integration of execution layers progresses, can contract exchanges break through their 7-8% share?

Turning “revenue” into “ownership”

The three factors—carry, execution, and distribution—reveal how crypto revenue is generated. But this is only part of the story. Equally important (or even more so): before protocols retain net revenue, what proportion of gross fees is allocated to token holders?

Value transfer through token buybacks, burns, and fee dividends signifies a token as an “economic ownership claim,” not just a “governance badge.”

In 2025, users of DeFi and other protocols paid approximately $30.3 billion in fees. Of this, $17.6 billion remained as protocol revenue after paying liquidity providers and vendors. About $3.36 billion of total revenue was returned to token holders via staking rewards, fee dividends, buybacks, and token burns.

This means: 58% of fees converted into protocol revenue, and about 19% of revenue was captured by token holders.

This is a significant shift compared to the previous cycle. We see more protocols trying to make tokens behave like claims on operational performance. This provides investors with a tangible incentive to hold long-term and believe in the projects they support.

I’ve written about how Hyperliquid and pump.fun achieved this last year: “Burn, Baby, Burn.”

The crypto world is far from perfect; most protocols still do not distribute any earnings to token holders. But when you zoom out, you’ll see the pointer has moved quite a bit, signaling that the era has changed.

Forward-looking to 2026: Return of fundamentals

Over the past year, the proportion of holder yields in total protocol revenue has steadily increased. It broke the previous high of 9.09% early last year and even peaked above 18% in August 2025.

This impact is directly reflected in token trading. If I hold a token that never rewards me, my trading decisions are only based on media narratives around it. But if I hold a token that pays me (via buybacks or dividends), I start to treat it as an income-generating asset. Although it may not be as safe and reliable, it still changes the market’s valuation of that token. Its valuation is pulled toward “fundamentals,” rather than just media hype.

When investors look back at 2025 to understand the fund flows of 2026, they will focus on “incentive mechanisms.” Teams prioritizing value transfer indeed stood out last year.

• Hyperliquid built a culture of returning about 90% of revenue to users through its “Hyperliquid Assistance Fund.”
• In token launch platforms, pump.fun reinforced the idea of rewarding active communities. It has already offset 18.6% of its native token $PUMP circulation supply through daily buybacks.

In 2026, it is expected that “value transfer” will no longer be a niche choice but will become the “entry ticket” for any protocol wishing its tokens to trade based on fundamentals (Table Stakes). Last year, the market already learned to separate protocol revenue from token holder value. Once token holders see tokens functioning like claims on ownership, returning to the old model will seem extremely irrational.

Conclusion

I do not believe that State of DeFi 2025 reveals any groundbreaking new insights about crypto industry revenue—over the past few months, “revenue discovery” has already become a common focus in the industry. The true value of this report lies in how it uses data to illuminate reality, and when we further scrutinize these numbers, we can see the most likely paths to revenue success in the crypto world.

By analyzing the concentration trends of protocol revenues, the report clearly points out a fact: whoever controls the “pipeline”—whether through carry spreads, execution, or flow distribution—can earn the most income.

Looking ahead to 2026, I expect more projects to start converting protocol fees into sustainable, disciplined revenue-sharing mechanisms that reward token holders. Especially as global interest rate cuts reduce arbitrage opportunities, this trend will become even more pronounced.