Tether tops crypto protocol revenue rankings in 2025 as stablecoins dominate

Tether led crypto protocol revenue in 2025 with approximately $5.2 billion, accounting for 41.9% of total revenue across 168 revenue-generating protocols, according to CoinGecko Research.

Stablecoin issuers dominated the rankings, with just four entities generating 65.7% or roughly $8.3 billion of total protocol revenue.

Tron ranked second among blockchains with approximately $3.5 billion in revenue, driven by its role as the preferred network for USDT transactions.

The remaining six protocols in the top 10 were trading platforms, whose revenue proved highly dependent on market conditions.

The data comes from CoinGecko’s 2025 Annual Crypto Industry Report tracking the crypto market’s first annual downturn since 2022.

Trading protocol revenue fluctuates with market cycles

Trading protocols experienced extreme volatility tied to market sentiment and meme coin speculation.

Phantom generated $35.2 million in revenue during January at the peak of the Solana meme coin frenzy. Revenue collapsed to $8.5 million by December as interest in meme coins dried up.

The pattern repeated across trading platforms. Revenue performed well in Q1 but fell sharply when markets turned bearish following October’s historic $19 billion liquidation event.

Monthly protocol revenue fluctuated between approximately $3 billion and $3.5 billion throughout most of 2025.

Stablecoin market capitalization surged 48.9% annually, adding $102.1 billion to reach a record $311.0 billion. The growth provided steady revenue streams for issuers regardless of volatile crypto asset prices.

PayPal’s PYUSD emerged as the fifth-largest stablecoin, surging 48.4% to reach $3.6 billion market cap through YouTube creator payouts and 4.25% yield via Spark Savings Vault.

Tron captures USDT transaction network effects

Tron’s $3.5 billion in blockchain revenue stems from high network usage as the preferred chain for USDT transactions.

Circle, Ethena, and MoonTrade joined Tether among the top four stablecoin issuers generating combined revenue of $8.3 billion.

Total crypto market capitalization ended 2025 at $3.0 trillion, down 10.4% year-over-year in the first annual decline since 2022.

Despite price contraction, average daily trading volumes hit a yearly high of $161.8 billion in Q4, driven by October’s liquidation event and subsequent volatility.

Digital Asset Treasury Companies deployed at least $49.7 billion in 2025 to acquire over 5% of total BTC and ETH supply.

However, Q4 deployment slowed to $5.8 billion as falling crypto prices dragged down DATCo share prices, forcing buybacks rather than continued accumulation.