L1 Blockchains and DeFi Protocols Dominate Crypto Fee Generation

Ethereum generated the most fees among the top twenty protocols over the past 30 days with around $180 million, according to new data from Token Terminal.

On June 17, the crypto analytics platform reported that Ethereum was way ahead of other blockchains, which were dominated by layer-1 chains and DeFi protocols, with only one layer-2 blockchain in the top 20. The Coinbase blockchain Base generated the least amount of fees for the period at $6 million.

“Given that the activity on Base has outpaced the Ethereum L1, this is a sign that L2 scaling is working,” it stated.

Top 20 Fee Generating Protocols in Crypto in the Past 30 Days

Key takeaways:

5/20 are L1 blockchains, while only 1/20 is an L2 blockchain
Outside of L1 & L2 blockchains, all other protocols belong to the DeFi category
Among the top 20, Ethereum generated the most… pic.twitter.com/sNG9br9chC

— Token Terminal (@tokenterminal) June 17, 2024

Layer-2 fees fell sharply following the Ethereum Dencun upgrade in March.

Ethereum, Tron, and Bitcoin Ahead

Only Ethereum, Tron, Bitcoin, and Lido generated over $100 million in fees over the past 30 days, it reported. Other findings were that Uniswap DAO led in fees among decentralized exchanges, while Uniswap Labs generated the least in the same category.

MakerDAO and Ethena dominated the decentralized stablecoin issuers category, and Aave was the clear market leader in the lending category, with a significant gap between them and second-place Morpho. The data did not include Tether or Circle, as they earn their fees and revenue off-chain.

The findings noted that revenue was calculated based on the percentage take rate that the protocol applies to fees. Bitcoin and Uniswap DAO currently have a take rate of 0%, whereas Ethereum tends to have a take rate of around 80%, it noted.

Ethereum remains much more profitable because the network earns revenue from transaction fee burns and pays relatively low token incentives to validators. Bitcoin generates zero revenue for BTC holders but pays substantial token incentives to miners.

Additionally, the Ethereum ecosystem could get a major boost in terms of adoption and growth if spot Ether ETFs are launched next month. This would mean that the asset is classed as a commodity, which could be the case for other altcoins.

Daily Crypto Fees

According to CryptoFees, Ethereum has generated $2.7 million over the past day. However,  Bitcoin was just above it with $2.9 million. Bitcoin fees usually increase when there is higher demand on the network from meme coin minters and ordinal inscriptions.

Uniswap and Aave were third and fourth with $1.4 million and $1 million in daily fees, respectively.

Token Terminal suggested that investors pay attention to fees for early-stage protocols that have not yet started to monetize.