Investment firm 1kx analyzed over 1,200 protocols, projecting that total 2025 fees will reach $19.8B as blockchain infrastructure costs decline.
Investment firm 1kx published its H1 2025 Onchain Revenue Report on Oct. 30, projecting total onchain fees will reach $19.8 billion in 2025, a 35% year-over-year increase.
The report found application-layer fees grew 126% YoY while blockchain-layer fees declined. Users paid $9.7 billion in onchain fees during H1 2025, the highest first-half total on record.
The analysis examined 1,244 protocols across six sectors using data from Dune, TokenTerminal, and DeFiLlama, according to 1kx’s H1 2025 Onchain Revenue Report.
The dataset covered 2020 through Q3 2025, categorizing protocols into blockchains, decentralized finance, decentralized physical infrastructure networks, wallets, middleware, and consumer applications.
DeFi protocols generated 63% of H1 2025 fees at $6.1 billion, led by decentralized exchanges, perpetual trading platforms, and lending markets.
Blockchains accounted for 22% at $2.1 billion, down from 56% in 2021. Wallets captured 8%, consumer applications 6%, DePIN 1%, and middleware 1%. Fee-generating protocols increased from 125 in 2021 to 969 in H1 2025.
Blockchain Efficiency Gains Reshape Fee Distribution
Average blockchain transaction fees fell 86% from the 2021 peak, driven by Ethereum’s ETH $3 730 24h volatility: 6.6% Market cap: $451.39 B Vol. 24h: $41.25 B scaling efforts.
Ethereum generated over 40% of all on-chain fees in 2021 but less than 3% in 2025. The network’s EIP-1550 mechanism and Layer 2 adoption reduced average costs by 95%.
Daily transactions increased 2.7 times to 169 million, while monthly active wallets rose 5.3 times to 273 million.
New Protocols Capture Market Share in High-Growth Sectors
Solana-based SOL $182.0 24h volatility: 7.1% Market cap: $100.12 B Vol. 24h: $9.56 B DEXs Meteora and Raydium RAY $1.60 24h volatility: 11.9% Market cap: $430.79 M Vol. 24h: $54.87 M captured share in H1 2025, while Uniswap’s portion declined from 44% to 16%. Hyperliquid HYPE $43.91 24h volatility: 7.5% Market cap: $11.97 B Vol. 24h: $1.07 B , launched less than one year ago, generated 35% of derivatives fees.
Jupiter JUP $0.39 24h volatility: 8.6% Market cap: $1.25 B Vol. 24h: $62.36 M increased its perpetual trading share from 5% to 45%. The report noted 32 protocols reached $100 million in annual fees within one year of launch.
Phantom wallet generated 30% of wallet sector fees after beginning monetization in Q4 2024. Binance Wallet’s Bubblemaps integration added transparency tools on Oct. 29. Pump.fun generated approximately $250 million in Q1 2025 fees.
Protocols distributed $1.9 billion to token holders in Q3 2025 through buybacks and burns. Applications reduced incentive emissions from $2.8 billion in H2 2021 to under $0.1 billion in H1 2025.
Bar charts showcasing on-chain fees organized by year. | Source: 1kx report
Real-world asset tokenization fees increased 50 times YoY, with Ondo Finance expanding its $1.8 billion tokenization market to BNB Chain BNB $1 064 24h volatility: 3.6% Market cap: $146.74 B Vol. 24h: $3.16 B in Oct. 2025.
The report projects 2026 fees will reach $32 billion, a 63% increase driven by applications. The analysis excluded Bitcoin BTC $107 006 24h volatility: 3.9% Market cap: $2.14 T Vol. 24h: $79.12 B , which represents 58% of crypto market capitalization, as it functions primarily as a store of value.
next