Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Asher (@Asher_ 0210)
In recent days, the rapid rise of BTC and ETH has reignited interest in secondary altcoins, and DeFi has become one of the most active sectors in this rebound, with many familiar projects experiencing significant short-term gains.
However, compared to blindly "chasing the pump," DeFi actually has a more intuitive fundamental indicator—revenue.
DeFi protocols like lending, spot trading, and liquid staking essentially rely on real users and capital continuously using them to generate revenue. Market trends may fluctuate, and narratives may rotate, but the ability to generate income consistently, at the very least, indicates that a protocol still has real demand.
So, within the current DeFi sector, which high-revenue projects are more worth considering for a suitable opportunity to "get on board"?
(Project revenue data in this article comes from Tokenomist and DefiLlama, uniformly using the revenue metric, i.e., the protocol's actual revenue after deducting allocations to supply-side participants like LPs.)
DEX
Uniswap (UNI)
In the past 30 days, Uniswap generated $7.18 million in revenue, making it the most profitable DEX project.
Looking at monthly data, Uniswap's revenue from January to July this year was $2.8 million, $3.2 million, $4.6 million, $4.5 million, $3.8 million, $5.1 million, and $4.4 million respectively, totaling approximately $28.4 million for the first 7 months.
Uniswap's revenue comes from Protocol Fees charged during transactions. The protocol fee is currently enabled on all Uniswap v2 pools and selected v3 pools, and is gradually expanding from Ethereum to multiple chains including Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, BNB Chain, and Polygon. Since the UNIfication proposal was implemented in late 2025, Uniswap officially activated the Protocol Fee and uses the revenue for UNI token burns (For more details, you can read: After Uniswap's Fee Switch Implementation: Is the 'Report Card' of This DeFi Transformation Impressive?). The protocol fees go into the TokenJar, and external participants wishing to withdraw the accumulated assets must simultaneously burn a corresponding amount of UNI.
Solana Ecosystem: Jupiter (JUP), Meteora (MET), Raydium (RAY)
Compared to other public chains, the on-chain trading ecosystem on Solana is more fragmented. Beyond traditional AMMs, different models like aggregators and DLMMs have also generated substantial revenue. Among them, Jupiter, Meteora, and Raydium are the three DEX projects with the highest protocol revenue in the Solana ecosystem over the past 30 days.
First, Jupiter generated $4.69 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
Looking at monthly data, Jupiter's revenue from January to July this year was $9.7 million, $7.5 million, $5.1 million, $4.6 million, $4.2 million, $5.4 million, and $4.3 million respectively, totaling approximately $40.8 million for the first 7 months.
Jupiter uses 50% of its on-chain revenue to repurchase JUP, with funds continuously buying from the open market through the Litterbox Trust. Since the buyback program started in February 2025, the cumulative repurchase volume has exceeded 260 million JUP. As of the end of 2025, approximately 134 million JUP (about 4% of the circulating supply) had been burned, a proposal passed with 86% community support.
Second, Meteora generated $1.67 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
Looking at monthly data, Meteora's revenue from January to July this year was $14.5 million (driven by the concentrated爆发 of new token launches and Meme trading on Solana), $1.9 million, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, $1.7 million, $2 million, and $1.7 million respectively, totaling approximately $24.5 million for the first 7 months.
In Q1 2026, Meteora spent 1 million USDC to repurchase approximately 7 million MET, at an average price of $0.1427. As of June 30, 2026, the cumulative repurchase was about 336 million MET, valued at approximately $45.75 million.
Third, Raydium generated $1.13 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
Looking at monthly data, Raydium's revenue from January to July this year was $2.6 million, $1.8 million, $1.3 million, $790k, $1.1 million, $720k, and $520k respectively, totaling approximately $8.83 million for the first 7 months.
Raydium allocates 12% of its trading fees to repurchase RAY. To date, the cumulative funds used by Raydium for RAY buybacks have reached approximately $200 million; in Q1 and Q2 2026 alone, about $3.31 million and $1.72 million were invested in buybacks, respectively.
BNB Chain Ecosystem: PancakeSwap (CAKE)
PancakeSwap generated $5.16 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at quarterly data, PancakeSwap's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $14.03 million and $10.63 million respectively, totaling approximately $24.66 million for the first half of the year.
PancakeSwap's strength lies in its long-standing position as the core trading gateway on BNB Chain, while also expanding to multiple chains like Base, Solana, and Ethereum. Furthermore, a portion of PancakeSwap's trading fees is used to repurchase and burn CAKE. In July 2026, PancakeSwap burned approximately 1.94 million CAKE. After deducting the 674,000 newly minted in the same period, CAKE saw a net reduction of about 1.27 million. The total supply has experienced net deflation for 35 consecutive months.
Base Ecosystem: Aerodrome (AERO)
Aerodrome generated $4.11 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at quarterly data, Aerodrome's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $18.31 million and $16.10 million respectively, totaling approximately $34.41 million for the first half of the year.
Compared to the previous DEXes, Aerodrome does not rely on repurchasing and burning AERO to absorb protocol revenue. Instead, it directly distributes revenue to veAERO holders. After users lock AERO to obtain veAERO and participate in voting, they receive a share of the trading fees and external incentives generated by the corresponding liquidity pools; according to the official mechanism, 100% of the protocol's generated Exchange Revenue is distributed to veAERO holders.
Lending
World Liberty Financial (WLFI)
World Liberty Financial generated $10.47 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at quarterly data, its revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $32.82 million and $34.45 million respectively, totaling approximately $67.27 million for the first half of the year.
Data shows that the net income for WLFI holders is currently still 0. Although a proposal to use 100% of the fees generated from the Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL) for repurchasing and burning WLFI previously passed with 99.84% support, this buyback only covers POL fees, not all the protocol revenue mentioned above.
Aave (AAVE)
Aave generated $4.12 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at quarterly data, Aave's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $25.37 million and $20.17 million respectively, totaling approximately $45.54 million for the first half of the year.
Aave initiated a buyback program in April 2025. By March 2026, it had cumulatively repurchased over 205,000 AAVE, accounting for about 1.28% of the total supply. Following the rsETH cross-chain bridge attack in April 2026, Aave DAO suspended the buyback program starting April 19th.
ETH Staking
ether.fi (ETHFI)
ether.fi generated $3.03 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at monthly data, ether.fi's revenue from January to July this year was $4.4 million, $3.1 million, $3.5 million, $3.6 million, $3.6 million, $2.8 million, and $3 million respectively, totaling approximately $24 million for the first 7 months.
Currently, 100% of the revenue generated from eETH withdrawals is used to repurchase ETHFI; additionally, businesses like Stake, Liquid, and Cash also allocate a portion of their monthly protocol revenue for buybacks. The repurchased ETHFI is not burned but distributed to sETHFI holders, effectively returning protocol revenue back to ETHFI staking users.
Lido (LDO)
Lido generated $2.31 million in revenue over the past 30 days. Looking at monthly data, Lido's revenue from January to July this year was $4 million, $2.5 million, $2.8 million, $2.9 million, $2.7 million, $2.1 million, and $2.2 million respectively, totaling approximately $19.2 million for the first 7 months.
On August 14th, Lido's automated buyback mechanism, NEST, officially went live. When the protocol's annualized revenue exceeds $40 million, 50% of the excess amount is used to automatically repurchase LDO via CoW Swap, with a daily buyback cap of $50,000 and a rolling 365-day cumulative cap of $10 million.
