Which Crypto Companies and Protocols Make The Most Money?

Tether makes essentially the most cash in crypto, and it’s not shut. During the last 30 days it retained $481.74 million in income, in opposition to $193.08 million for Circle in second place. Canton (@CantonNetwork) is third with $56.1 million, lower than an eighth of what Tether retains.

They do cost charges, however the charges barely matter. Circle books $653 million of its $694 million in Q1 2026 income as reserve revenue, the curiosity on the T-bills and money backing $USDC. Every part else it fees for, cross-chain transfers included, got here to $42 million. The float is the enterprise. Utilization is a rounding error on it.

Why Charges, Income and Revenue Are Three Completely different Numbers

DefiLlama splits its information throughout two pages, and the hole between them is the story.

Charges are what customers pay. Income is what the protocol retains after paying out liquidity suppliers, stakers, rebates, and referral cuts. For many companies on the board, that hole is broad. For the 2 on the prime, it barely exists. Tether’s charges and income over 30 days are an identical, and Circle retains $193.08 million of the $193.97 million it collects.

Retained remains to be not revenue. An organization has employees, servers, attorneys, and compliance prices. A protocol could distribute its income on to token holders by way of buybacks or burns, which advantages holders and isn’t company revenue. Learn the leaderboard as money circulate, not earnings.

The 30-Day Leaderboard

Ranked by income retained, as of July 15, 2026:

• Tether (stablecoin issuer): $481.74 million
• Circle (stablecoin issuer): $193.08 million
• Canton (chain): $56.1 million
• Hyperliquid (perps DEX): $44.31 million
• Pump (launchpad): $28.25 million
• Tron (chain): $26.33 million
• Polymarket (prediction market): $22.36 million

The following eleven names under Circle add as much as $242.91 million between them. Tether alone earns almost double that.

Why Do the Stablecoin Issuers Win?

Virtually none of it comes from charging individuals to commerce. It comes from what the reserves earn whereas sitting there.

@tether runs the best enterprise within the business: take {dollars}, concern tokens, park the {dollars} in short-dated authorities debt, maintain the curiosity. By the top of 2025 that meant $122 billion in Treasuries inside $193 billion of complete belongings, backing over $186 billion of $USDT in circulation, with $6.3 billion in extra reserves on prime.

Its leaderboard quantity is simply that curiosity revenue. Revenue is one other matter: of the $5.7 billion Tether netted within the first half of 2025, $3.1 billion was recurring reserve revenue and $2.6 billion was mark-to-market good points on the gold and Bitcoin sitting alongside the Treasuries. The income desk sees the primary quantity and never the second.

@circle runs the identical engine with a public stability sheet, which makes the prices seen. Full-year 2025 income and reserve revenue got here to $2.7 billion, up 64%, however the firm nonetheless posted a $70 million internet loss from persevering with operations, hit by $424 million in inventory compensation tied to IPO vesting. The Q1 2026 accounts present the place the cash really went: $407 million of that quarter’s income was spent on distribution, transaction, and different prices. Internet revenue was $55 million.

That’s the nuance a income column can not present. Circle retains $193 million a month on the leaderboard. Its personal filings present a lot of the reserve yield leaves the constructing, a lot of it to Coinbase.

The Buying and selling Companies Beneath

Under the issuers, the rating modifications relying on which column you kind.

@Pumpfun took $74.47 million in person charges over 30 days, the third-largest 30-day payment tackle the board, forward of Uniswap. It stored $28.25 million of that, roughly 38%, with the remainder going to creators, cashback, and buybacks.

@HyperliquidX collected $62.19 million and retained $44.31 million, the best conversion of any buying and selling venue on the desk. Virtually all of it’s routed to the Help Fund to purchase $HYPE on the open market. The protocol earns arduous, then spends it by itself token. Holders profit. The corporate, in any typical sense, doesn’t financial institution it.

@Polymarket stored $22.36 million from $48.35 million paid in, an indication that prediction markets have was an actual payment enterprise somewhat than a curiosity.

@Uniswap is the clearest instance of why charges mislead. During the last 24 hours, it ranked third on your entire payment desk at $5.97 million, unfold throughout 47 chains. It doesn’t seem within the income prime 13 in any respect, an inventory that cuts off at $270,270. Uniswap collects extra from customers than nearly some other protocol in crypto and retains beneath 5% of it, as a result of the remainder belongs to liquidity suppliers.

Chains sit on the different excessive. Canton and Tron (@trondao) burn their charges outright, which is why their income traces match their payment traces precisely: $56.1 million and $26.33 million destroyed. No one collects a paycheck from that. The worth, if any, exhibits up in provide.

What Concerning the Exchanges?

Every part above is on-chain. The biggest crypto companies on this planet don’t seem on that desk in any respect.

@binance is the most important and the toughest to pin down. It publishes no audited financials. Its personal year-end report claims $34 trillion in complete product quantity for 2025 and spot quantity above $7.1 trillion. Forbes has estimated income within the $16 billion to $17 billion vary for 2024 and 2025, in opposition to a roughly 38% share of worldwide spot buying and selling.

@coinbase is the one with audited numbers, they usually present a buying and selling enterprise beneath actual strain. Full-year 2025 income was $7.2 billion, up 9%, with a $667 million internet loss in This fall alone. Q1 2026 complete income got here in at $1.41 billion, down 31% yr on yr, with a $394.1 million internet loss and a $482.4 million unrealized loss on crypto held for funding. Adjusted EBITDA stayed constructive at $303 million, the thirteenth straight quarter. The one line that grew was stablecoin income, at $305 million in opposition to $274 million a yr earlier. The most important alternate in America now leans on the identical T-bill yield as Tether and Circle, taken as a lower of Circle’s reserve revenue.

The Squeeze Already Began

Circle’s reserve return charge hit 3.5% in Q1 2026, down 66 foundation factors in a yr as SOFR fell. Income declined with it, from $770 million in This fall 2025 to $694 million in Q1 2026, whereas common $USDC circulation grew 39% over the identical interval. Internet revenue fell 15%.

Tether tells the identical story with extra zeroes. It cleared over $10 billion in 2025 in opposition to over $13 billion in 2024, a 23% drop. It did that within the yr it pushed $USDT to a report circulation and its Treasury publicity, direct and oblique, to a report $141 billion.

Each firms grew the float to all-time highs and took residence much less cash. Everybody else on the leaderboard is combating for buying and selling exercise. The 2 on the prime are combating the speed cycle.

Sources

• DefiLlama Income – Dwell rankings of charges retained by protocols and chains throughout 24h, 7d and 30d home windows.
• DefiLlama Charges – Whole charges paid by customers, with per-protocol definitions of what counts as income.
• Tether – This fall 2025 attestation announcement protecting 2025 earnings, extra reserves and Treasury publicity.
• Tether Q2 2025 attestation – First-half 2025 revenue cut up between recurring reserve revenue and gold and bitcoin good points.
• Circle Q1 2026 outcomes – Reserve revenue, distribution prices, internet revenue and reserve return charge for the quarter.
• Circle FY 2025 outcomes – Full-year income, internet loss and $USDC circulation figures.
• Coinbase Type 10-Q – Q1 2026 income breakdown filed with the SEC.
• Coinbase This fall 2025 shareholder letter – Full-year 2025 income and This fall internet loss.
• Binance 2025 year-end report – Self-reported buying and selling quantity, person and market share metrics.