Author | Asher(@Asher_ 0210)
In recent days, the rapid rise of BTC and ETH has reignited the secondary altcoin market, with DeFi becoming one of the most active sectors in this rebound. Many well-known projects have seen considerable gains in a short period.
However, compared to blindly 'chasing pumps,' DeFi actually has a more intuitive fundamental metric—revenue.
DeFi protocols such as lending, spot trading, and liquid staking essentially rely on real users and sustained capital usage to generate revenue. Market conditions fluctuate, and narratives rotate, but the ability to generate income over the long term, at the very least, indicates that the protocol still has genuine demand.
So, within the current DeFi landscape, which high-revenue projects are more worthy of finding the right opportunity to 'get on board'?
(Project revenue data in this article is sourced from Tokenomist and DefiLlama, using the unified revenue metric, which refers to the protocol's actual income 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, accumulating to approximately $28.4 million in the first seven months.
Uniswap's revenue comes from the Protocol Fee charged during transactions. Protocol fees are currently active on all Uniswap v2 pools and selected v3 pools, and are 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 Protocol Fees and uses the revenue for UNI burning (for more details, read: After Uniswap's Fee Switch: Is the 'Report Card' of This DeFi Reform Impressive?). 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, Solana's on-chain trading ecosystem is more fragmented. Beyond traditional AMMs, different models like aggregators and DLMM 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's revenue over the past 30 days is $4.69 million.
From 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, accumulating to approximately $40.8 million in the first seven months.
Jupiter allocates 50% of its on-chain revenue to repurchasing JUP, with funds continuously buying from the open market through the Litterbox Trust. Since the buyback program launched in February 2025, the cumulative repurchase volume has exceeded 260 million JUP. Of this, approximately 134 million JUP (about 4% of the circulating supply) were burned by the end of 2025, following a community vote with 86% support.
Second, Meteora's revenue over the past 30 days is $1.67 million.
From monthly data, Meteora's revenue from January to July this year was $14.5 million (driven by concentrated issuance of new tokens and meme trading on Solana), $1.9 million, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, $1.7 million, $2 million, and $1.7 million respectively, accumulating to approximately $24.5 million in the first seven 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's revenue over the past 30 days is $1.13 million.
From monthly data, Raydium's revenue from January to July this year was $2.6 million, $1.8 million, $1.3 million, $790,000, $1.1 million, $720,000, and $520,000 respectively, accumulating to approximately $8.83 million in the first seven months.
Raydium allocates 12% of its trading fees to repurchasing RAY. To date, the cumulative funds used 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's revenue over the past 30 days is $5.16 million. Looking at quarterly data, PancakeSwap's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $14.03 million and $10.63 million respectively, accumulating to approximately $24.66 million in 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 674,000 newly minted CAKE in the same period, the net reduction of CAKE was about 1.27 million, marking the 35th consecutive month of net deflation in total supply.
Base Ecosystem: Aerodrome(AERO)
Aerodrome's revenue over the past 30 days is $4.11 million. Looking at quarterly data, Aerodrome's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $18.31 million and $16.1 million respectively, accumulating to approximately $34.41 million in the first half of the year.
Unlike the DEXs mentioned earlier, Aerodrome does not rely on repurchasing and burning AERO to absorb protocol revenue. Instead, it directly distributes revenue to veAERO holders. Users lock AERO to obtain veAERO and participate in voting, after which they can receive a share of the trading fees and external incentives generated by the corresponding liquidity pools. According to the official mechanism, the Exchange Revenue generated by the protocol is 100% distributed to veAERO holders.
Lending
World Liberty Financial(WLFI)
World Liberty Financial's revenue over the past 30 days is $10.47 million. Looking at quarterly data, its revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $32.82 million and $34.45 million respectively, accumulating to approximately $67.27 million in the first half of the year.
Data shows that the net income for WLFI holders remains at 0 currently. Although a proposal to use 100% of the fees generated from the Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL) for repurchasing and burning WLFI was passed with 99.84% support, this buyback only covers POL fees, not the entire protocol revenue mentioned above.
Aave(AAVE)
Aave's revenue over the past 30 days is $4.12 million. Looking at quarterly data, Aave's revenue in Q1 and Q2 this year was $25.37 million and $20.17 million respectively, accumulating to approximately $45.54 million in the first half of the year.
Aave launched its buyback program in April 2025. By March 2026, it had cumulatively repurchased over 205,000 AAVE, representing about 1.28% of the total supply. Following the rsETH cross-chain bridge attack in April 2026, Aave DAO paused the buyback program starting April 19th.
ETH Staking
ether.fi(ETHFI)
ether.fi's revenue over the past 30 days is $3.03 million. From 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, accumulating to approximately $24 million in the first seven months.
Currently, 100% of the revenue generated from eETH withdrawals is used to repurchase ETHFI; additionally, businesses like Stake, Liquid, and Cash allocate a portion of their monthly protocol revenue for repurchases. The repurchased ETHFI is not burned but distributed to sETHFI holders, effectively returning protocol revenue to users who stake ETHFI.
Lido(LDO)
Lido's revenue over the past 30 days is $2.31 million. From 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, accumulating to approximately $19.2 million in the first seven months.
On August 14th, Lido's automatic repurchase mechanism, NEST, was officially activated. 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.
