Top Ten "Money-Making" Protocols: From Ethereum to Pump.fun, Who is Leading the Crypto Trend?
pump.fun ranks 16th with nearly $146 million in agreement revenue over the past year.Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
In the crypto world, there is no "myth of eternal profit," but there is a "legend of capital absorption."
In October, according to Dune data, pump.fun has accumulated earnings of over $160 million, with more than 2.4 million total addresses and over 2.8 million total tokens deployed; currently, its cumulative earnings have reached as high as $167.3 million. In other words, in just about 4 days, pump.fun, as the "strongest capital absorption machine" of this cycle, has increased its earnings by approximately $7.3 million, which is quite astonishing.
Combining various protocol revenue data from the past year, Odaily Planet Daily will categorize and summarize the top 10 "strongest capital absorption protocols" in this article, revealing the trends and waves of the industry cycle for readers' reference.
Capital Absorption Machines Overview: 42 Major Projects with Annual Revenue Exceeding $30 Million, Mainly in 4 Categories
According to data from the DefiLlama website, narrowing the timeframe to within one year, there are currently 42 major projects whose protocol revenues have surpassed $30 million, which can be mainly divided into the following categories:
Blockchain Ecosystem: L1 Networks Remain the "Mainstream Capital Absorption Giants"
Looking closely at the list of "protocols with revenues exceeding $30 million," we can clearly see that over the past decade of blockchain ecosystem development, L1 public chain networks remain the most mainstream "capital absorption giants," among which:
- Ethereum leads with nearly $2.57 billion in revenue over the past year;
- Bitcoin ranks second with nearly $1.323 billion in revenue;
- TRON, positioned as a "stablecoin network," has achieved $515 million in revenue;
- Solana has benefited from this year's booming meme coin craze, earning $407 million;
- BSC (BNB Chain) has earned $180 million, benefiting from its backing by Binance exchange;
- Avalanche has seen a more explosive growth towards the end of 2023, with monthly protocol revenue increasing from $2.5 million to $52.25 million.
Overall, although the development path of the L1 ecosystem is extremely rugged, it remains the main "pillar" supporting the crypto world, and Ethereum's staggering protocol revenue of $19.367 billion (as of November 3, 2024) is indeed daunting. This also indirectly indicates that, as the largest ecosystem in the crypto world, Ethereum is far from the "desperate situation" often mentioned by many.
Some representative ecosystems
Infrastructure Projects: Stablecoins and DEXs as "Capital Absorption Experts"
Another category of projects ranking high on the "capital absorption leaderboard" includes various infrastructure projects, including stablecoins, staking protocols, and DEXs, among which------
- Tether, the issuer behind USDT, and Circle, the issuer behind USDC, rank at the top with nearly $16.17 billion and $516 million in protocol revenue, respectively;
- DEXs such as Uniswap, Raydium, and PancakeSwap occupy the second tier of this category, with protocol revenues ranging from $350 million to $820 million over the past year.
In addition, staking and re-staking protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Lido and Ethena, have also made the list with annual protocol revenues of $986 million and $136 million, respectively, becoming part of the "new infrastructure" and gaining high market recognition.
Some representative projects
Application Projects: Wallets and Meme Coin Platforms as "Capital Absorption Machines"
As for specific application projects, the previous "industry favorites"—wallet applications and the current thematic track "Meme coin platforms" have become the most significant "capital absorption machines." Among them------
pump.fun (noted as Pump on the platform) ranks 16th with nearly $146 million in protocol revenue over the past year;
pump.fun ranks 16th
MetaMask (commonly known as the little fox wallet) ranks 28th with $70.49 million in protocol revenue over the past year.
MetaMask ranks 28th
Expansion Projects: L2 and Service Platforms as "New Capital Absorption Players"
In addition to the main categories mentioned above, there are also many "expansion projects" ranking high in protocol revenue over the past year—such as Ethereum L2 networks including Base, Arbitrum, ZKsync Era, and Optimism, among which------
- Base ranks 26th with nearly $73.02 million in protocol revenue;
- Arbitrum ranks 32nd with nearly $56.19 million in protocol revenue;
- ZKsync Era ranks 38th with nearly $36.74 million in protocol revenue;
- Optimism ranks 41st with nearly $33.96 million in protocol revenue.
Some representative ecosystems
Service platforms are more diverse, including the former "NFT market king" OpenSea, aggregation trading platforms like DEX Screener, and various Telegram ecosystem trading bots such as Photon, BONKbot, Trojan, Banana Gun, Maestro, etc. Of course, from the image below, we can also see that the Solana ecosystem remains the main focus of these projects.
Some representative projects
Top 10 "Strongest Capital Absorption" Protocols Overview: A Look at the Most "Profitable" Tracks in Crypto
Based on the above information and data from the DefiLlama website, we can filter out the following representative "capital absorption projects" based on total protocol revenue------
- Ethereum, with a total protocol revenue of $193.69 billion;
- Uniswap, with a total protocol revenue of $56.97 billion;
- BTC, with a total protocol revenue of $41.44 billion;
- BSC (BNB Chain), with a total protocol revenue of $28.57 billion;
- OpenSea, with a total protocol revenue of $27.83 billion;
- Lido, with a total protocol revenue of $19.39 billion;
- Tether, with a total protocol revenue of $16.84 billion;
- PancakeSwap, with a total protocol revenue of $16.14 billion;
- TRON, with a total protocol revenue of $11.7 billion;
- AAVE, with a total protocol revenue of $9.61 billion.
Project ranking summary
Conclusion: Compared to "Version Answers," Steady Progress is the Key
Honestly, from my personal perspective, the back-and-forth of "capital absorption protocols" also reflects the changes in the crypto industry:
· Before 2020, the most capital-absorbing protocols were undoubtedly various public chains that started with ICOs, with Ethereum emerging at that time, laying the foundation for today's $300 billion market cap;
· In the 2020-2022 phase, the Ethereum ecosystem became the "center of the cryptocurrency industry," with platforms and projects like Uniswap, Axie Infinity, STEPN, and OpenSea emerging in waves driven by industry trends such as DeFi Summer, GameFi Summer, and NFT Summer, shouldering the banner of industry capital absorption;
· In the 2023-2024 phase, which is the current cycle, the "SocialFi golden product" represented by friend.tech first appeared, followed by the "MemeFi MVP" represented by pump.fun, making the crypto industry's "capital absorption black hole" an "asset issuance platform" that simultaneously masters liquidity and attention.
However, looking closely at the protocol revenue rankings over the past year and even over a longer period, version answers are at best just "new entrants" in the "capital absorption track." Whether they can navigate through the mid-stage of the product lifecycle and ensure they "stay in the game" in the later stages remains an unknown.
Compared to countless "one-hit wonders" of "protocols and applications," perhaps the steady ecosystem is still the best "capital absorption tool."
