The economics of the crypto industry has entered a new phase, one driven by fees, users and real demand rather than price speculation, According to a new study from venture firm 1kx.
The Onchain Revenue Report (H1 2025) has been compiled Verified onchain data throughout Over 1,200 protocols, tracking how value actually moves through decentralized systems. The result: a $20 billion economy growing at lightning speed.
“Onchain fees are the clearest signal of real demand,” 1KX wrote in its report.
Defi protocols still account for about 63% of total onchain fees, according to the report, but newer verticals are rising rapidly. Wallets saw a 260% year-over-year revenue increase as interfaces became revenue centers, while front-end apps jumped 200% and Depin (decentralized physical infrastructure networks) grew 400%.
Ethereum’s dominance has disappeared as scaling solutions and blockchain alternatives have lowered transaction costs – the average TX fee of ETH has decreased by 86% since 2021 – even as the number of monetization protocols has expanded eightfold.
The report also highlighted how fees and valuations differ. While the top 20 protocols capture 70% of all onchain fees, market caps are still unsustainable speeds. Defi applications run at nearly 17x price-to-fees, while blockchains are valued at 3,900x, reflecting the perpetual premium investors have assigned to “nation-state” narrative assets.
That mismatch, 1kx suggests, could represent an opportunity. “Markets start to price applications like businesses,” the firm noted, indicating that protocols with recurring fee income could claim the next round of investment.
Going forward, 1kx forecasts $32 billion in onchain fees by 2026, a 63% year-over-year increase. The biggest growth drivers, it says, will be real asset tokenization (RWAs), depin networks, wallet monetization, and crypto-facing apps.
Combined with improving regulatory clarity and scalable infrastructure, the firm argued that this could mark the start of Crypto’s “mature phase” — one where use, payment, and distribution of value will finally converge.
Read more: Crypto venture fund variant, 1kx leads $6m funding round for ZK-Meet-AI Startup Modulus
