Tether dominated crypto protocol revenue in 2025, generating $5.2B as stablecoins outperformed trading platforms amid volatile market conditions.
Tether emerged as the largest revenue generator in the crypto industry during 2025. Data revealed stablecoin issuers consistently outperformed protocols focused on trading despite a change in market sentiment throughout the year.
Stablecoins Dominate Crypto Revenue as Tether Leads 2025 Rankings
According to CoinGecko Research, Tether created about $5.2B in protocol revenue in 2025. This number accounted for 41.9% of all revenue in 168 crypto protocols.
INSIGHT: Stablecoins generated $5.2B in revenue in 2025, accounting for 41.9% of total protocol revenue. pic.twitter.com/fjJrAn9k7B
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) January 25, 2026
As a result, Tether appeared as the single largest contributor to the rest of the crypto universe. Its dominance was a result of consistent demand for stablecoin liquidity amid uncertain market conditions.
Related Reading: Iran Builds $507M USDT Reserve to Support Rial
Moreover, stablecoin issuers as a group performed substantially better than the other categories of protocols. Just 4 entities were responsible for 65.7% of total revenue, which is about $8.3B.
Meanwhile the rest 6 protocols in the top 10 were mainly trading platforms. These protocols demonstrated enhanced sensitivity to market cycles and volatility.
CoinGecko Research said that overall protocol revenue varied during the year. Market conditions and trading activity had a direct impact on monthly performance in different sectors.
In January total protocol revenue was about $3.3B. However, revenue fell to about $2.9B by April with a weakening market.
Later, revenue recovered in the summer months. August was the peak month of the year, with combined protocol revenue of almost $3.5B.
However, the recovery was temporary as conditions changed once again. By October total revenue plunged to around $3.0B against falling trading volumes.
Trading-focused protocols saw the most extreme face swings in revenue over the year. Their performance followed speculative interest and short-term market trends very closely.
Trading Protocols Show Volatility as Tron Ranks Second Overall
Phantom provided a perfect example of volatility driven by traders in 2025. The protocol has been close to $95.2M in January during the Solana memecoin surge.
However, the interest waned quickly in subsequent months. By December, Phantom’s monthly revenue fell heavily to only $8.6M.
Similar patterns emerged at other trading platforms. Revenue peaks often corresponded to short speculative cycles as opposed to enduring user activity.
Some of the notable contributors during the year were Circle, Hyperliquid, pump.fun, Ethena, Axiom Trade, Sky, PancakeSwap and Aerodrome. Each had monthly revenue ranging from $60M to $230M.
Despite all these contributions, the issuers of stablecoins were more consistent throughout the year. Their revenue streams were the result of demand for transactions as opposed to speculative trading.
The data also underscored key trends of blockchain usage. If blockchains were included, Tron would be the second most revenue generating one of all.
CoinGecko Research estimated that Tron generated around $3.5B in revenue in the year 2025. This performance was due mostly to its role in USDT transactions.
Tron’s network is still preferred for USDT transfers on layer 1. High transaction volumes converted into sustained generation of fees.
Overall, the data painted a very clear industry story for 2025. Stablecoins provided predictable revenues, whereas trading protocols were uneven in their performances.
As market conditions change, concentration in revenue may continue to be a major theme. Stablecoin infrastructure is helping to anchor crypto activity during volatile times.
