On-chain fee report for the first half of 2025: 1,124 protocols achieved profitability, with revenue exceeding $20 billion.
Author: 1kx network Compiled by: Tim, PANews 1kx has released its most comprehensive on-chain revenue report to date for the crypto market: the "1kx On-Chain Revenue Report (First Half of 2025)". The report compiles verified on-chain fee data from over 1,200 protocols, clearly depicting user payment paths, value flows, and the core factors driving growth. Why are on-chain fees so important? Because this is the most direct signal of genuine payment demand: On-chain ecosystem = open, global, and has investment value Off-chain ecosystem = restricted, mature Data comparison reveals development trends: on-chain application fees increased by 126% year-on-year, while off-chain fees only increased by 15%. How large is the market? In 2020, on-chain activity was still in the experimental stage, but by 2025 it will have developed into a real-time measurable $20 billion economy. Users are paying for hundreds of application scenarios: transactions, buying and selling, data storage, cross-application collaboration, and we have counted 1,124 protocols that have achieved on-chain profitability this year. How are the fees generated? DeFi remains a core pillar, contributing 63% of total fees, but the industry landscape is rapidly evolving: The wallet business (which surged 260% year-on-year) has transformed the user interface into a profit center. Consumer apps (200% growth) directly monetize user traffic. DePIN (which surged 400%) brings computing power and connectivity services onto the blockchain. Does the on-chain economy truly exist? Although the total cost did not exceed the 2021 peak, the ecological health is stronger than before: At that time, on-chain fees accounted for over 40% of ETH transactions; now, transaction costs have decreased by 86%. The number of profitable agreements increased eightfold. Token holders' dividends hit a record high What are the core driving factors? The asset price determines the on-chain fees denominated in USD, which is in line with expectations, but the following should be noted: Price fluctuations trigger seasonal cycles 21 years later, application costs and valuations show a strong causal relationship (increased costs drive up valuations). The influence of on-chain factors in specific tracks is significant. Who is the winner? The top 20 protocols account for 70% of the total fees, but the rankings change frequently, as no industry can be disrupted as rapidly as the crypto space. The top 5 are: meteora, jito, jupitter, raydium, and solana. A discrepancy exists between expenses and valuation: Although application-based projects dominate expense generation, their market capitalization share has remained almost unchanged. Why is this? The market's valuation logic for application-based projects is similar to that for traditional enterprises: DeFi has a price-to-earnings ratio of about 17 times, while public chains have a valuation as high as 3900 times, which reflects additional narrative value (store of value, national-level infrastructure, etc.). What are the future trends for on-chain fees? Our baseline forecast shows that on-chain fees will exceed $32 billion in 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of 63%, primarily driven by the application layer. RWA, DePIN, wallets, and consumer applications are entering a period of accelerated development, while L1 fees will gradually stabilize as scaling technology continues to advance. Driven by favorable regulations, we believe this marks the beginning of the crypto industry's maturity phase: application scale, fee revenue, and value distribution will eventually advance in tandem. Full version: https://1kx.io/writing/2025-onchain-revenue-report
