DeFi Captures 5x Fee of Blockchains, Value Drifts to Front-End Apps

Revenue in the crypto industry is increasingly concentrating in user-facing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications, which now capture five times the fees generated by the underlying blockchain networks, according to data from Real Vision's chief crypto analyst, Jamie Coutts. This trend indicates that value is drifting toward the front end—wallets, DEXs, and protocols closest to users—rather than the base layers. Data from DeFiLlama confirms this shift, showing that the top 17 fee-generating entities over the last 30 days were DeFi applications or protocols, not blockchains. For instance, stablecoin issuer Tether led with $563 million in fees, dwarfing Solana's $20.4 million, the highest among blockchains, with Ethereum trailing at $10.3 million. While Solana remains the most-used chain by active addresses, the revenue dynamics suggest developers and institutional investors are focusing more attention on the application layer.

(Source：Cointelegraph)