Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Asher (@Asher_0210)
In recent days, the rapid rise in BTC and ETH has reignited interest in secondary altcoins, with DeFi emerging as one of the most active sectors in this rebound, as many well-known projects have seen substantial gains in a short time.
But compared to blindly chasing price increases, DeFi actually has a more straightforward fundamental metric: revenue.
DeFi protocols such as lending, spot trading, and liquid staking fundamentally rely on continuous usage by real users and capital to generate revenue. Market conditions fluctuate and narratives shift, but the ability to profit over the long term at least indicates that the protocol still has real demand.
So, in the current DeFi space, which high-income projects are worth seeking out the right opportunity to get involved in?
Project revenue data in this article is sourced from Tokenomist and DefiLlama, using a consistent revenue metric: the protocol’s actual revenue after deductions for供给侧 participants such as LPs.
DEX
Uniswap (UNI)
Over the past 30 days, Uniswap generated $7.18 million in revenue, making it the most profitable DEX project.
Monthly data shows that 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, totaling approximately $28.4 million over the first seven months.
Uniswap's revenue comes from the Protocol Fee charged during trades. Currently, the protocol fee has been enabled across all Uniswap v2 pools and select v3 pools, and is gradually expanding from Ethereum to multiple chains including Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, BNB Chain, and Polygon. After the UNIfication proposal was implemented at the end of 2025, Uniswap officially activated the Protocol Fee, directing revenues toward UNI token burns (For more details, read: After Uniswap’s Fee Switch Goes Live: Is This DeFi Transformation’s “Report Card” Impressive Enough?). Protocol fees are routed to TokenJar; external parties wishing to withdraw accumulated assets must simultaneously burn a corresponding amount of UNI.
Solana ecosystem: Jupiter (JUP), Meteora (MET), Raydium (RAY)
Compared to other blockchains, Solana's on-chain trading ecosystem is more diversified. Beyond traditional AMMs, various models such as aggregators and DLMMs have generated substantial revenues, with Jupiter, Meteora, and Raydium being the top three DEX projects in terms of protocol revenue over the past 30 days on Solana.
First, Jupiter's revenue over the past 30 days is $4.69 million.
Looking at the monthly data, Jupiter's revenues from January to July this year were $9.7 million, $7.5 million, $5.1 million, $4.6 million, $4.2 million, $5.4 million, and $4.3 million, respectively, totaling approximately $40.8 million over the first seven months.
Jupiter allocates 50% of its on-chain revenue to repurchase JUP, with funds continuously bought from the open market through Litterbox Trust. Since the repurchase program launched in February 2025, cumulative repurchases have exceeded 260 million JUP. As of the end of 2025, approximately 134 million JUP (about 4% of the circulating supply) have been burned, following a proposal approved by 86% community support.
Second, Meteora's revenue over the past 30 days was $1.67 million.
Looking at the monthly data, Meteora's revenue from January to July this year was $14.5 million (driven by new token launches on Solana and a surge in meme trading), $1.9 million, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, $1.7 million, $2 million, and $1.7 million, totaling approximately $24.5 million over the first seven months.
In the first quarter of 2026, Meteora spent 1 million USDC to repurchase approximately 70 million MET at an average price of $0.1427. As of June 30, 2026, a total of approximately 336 million MET have been repurchased, valued at approximately $45.75 million.
Third, Raydium's revenue over the past 30 days is $1.13 million.
Looking at the 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, totaling approximately $8.83 million over the first seven months.
12% of Raydium's trading fees are used to repurchase RAY, and the total amount invested in RAY repurchases to date has reached approximately $200 million; approximately $3.31 million and $1.72 million were allocated for repurchases in the first and second quarters of 2026, 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 for the first and second quarters of this year was $14.03 million and $10.63 million, respectively, totaling approximately $24.66 million for the first half of the year.
PancakeSwap's advantage lies in its long-standing position as a core trading gateway on BNB Chain, while also expanding to multiple chains including Base, Solana, and Ethereum. Additionally, a portion of PancakeSwap's trading fees is used to repurchase and burn CAKE. In July 2026, PancakeSwap burned approximately 1.94 million CAKE, and after accounting for the 674,000 CAKE newly issued during the same period, the net reduction of CAKE amounted to about 1.27 million, resulting in a continuous net deflation of the total supply for 35 consecutive months.
Base ecosystem: Aerodrome (AERO)
Aerodrome's revenue over the past 30 days was $4.11 million. Looking at quarterly data, Aerodrome's revenue for the first and second quarters of this year was $18.31 million and $16.10 million, respectively, totaling approximately $34.41 million for the first half of the year.
Compared to the previous DEXs, Aerodrome does not rely on buybacks and burns of AERO to absorb protocol revenue; instead, it directly distributes revenue to veAERO holders. Users who lock AERO to obtain veAERO and participate in voting can earn a share of the trading fees and external incentives generated by corresponding liquidity pools. According to the official mechanism, 100% of the protocol’s Exchange Revenue is distributed to veAERO holders.
Borrowing
World Liberty Financial (WLFI)
World Liberty Financial's revenue over the past 30 days was $10.47 million. Based on quarterly data, its revenue for the first and second quarters of this year was $32.82 million and $34.45 million, respectively, totaling approximately $67.27 million for the first half of the year.
Data shows that the net income for WLFI holders is currently still 0. Although a proposal to use 100% of fees generated by the Protocol’s Own Liquidity (POL) for WLFI buybacks and burns was approved with 99.84% support, the buyback only covers POL transaction fees, not the entire protocol revenue.
Aave (AAVE)
Aave's revenue over the past 30 days is $4.12 million. Looking at quarterly data, Aave's revenue for the first and second quarters of this year was $25.37 million and $20.17 million, respectively, totaling approximately $45.54 million for the first half of the year.
Aave launched its buyback program in April 2025 and, as of March 2026, had cumulatively repurchased over 205,000 AAVE tokens, representing approximately 1.28% of the total supply. Following the rsETH cross-chain bridge attack in April 2026, the Aave DAO suspended buybacks effective April 19.
ETH staking
ether.fi (ETHFI)
ether.fi's revenue over the past 30 days is $3.03 million. Monthly revenue for ether.fi 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, totaling approximately $24 million over the first seven months.
Currently, 100% of the revenue generated from eETH withdrawals is used to repurchase ETHFI; additionally, businesses such as Stake, Liquid, and Cash also allocate a portion of their monthly protocol revenue toward repurchases. The repurchased ETHFI is not burned, but rather distributed to sETHFI holders, returning protocol revenue back to ETHFI stakers.
Lido (LDO)
Lido's revenue over the past 30 days is $2.31 million. Monthly data shows 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, totaling approximately $19.2 million over the first seven months.
On August 14, Lido's automated buyback 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.