Top Crypto Companies Earning the Most Fees

Key Takeaways

• Crypto transaction fees are generated when you buy, sell, or move crypto from one address to another.
• These transaction fees can be a barometer for the growth and vitality of a crypto project, as there tends to be a correlation between transaction fees and the success of a project.
• Since rising fees can signal big investments in crypto, here is our list of the top crypto companies earning the most fees.

Crypto networks charge fees when you buy, sell, or move crypto. These fees help prevent spam, support blockchain security, and assist with platform development: essentially, Fees are how crypto companies make money.

Fees vary by network (sometimes even per transaction) and are generally calculated based on urgency, data size, and complexity. For example, a complex transaction on Ethereum (such as a payment to many wallets) costs more than a simple transaction (a single wallet).

For crypto investors, fees are a great barometer of a company’s success. Because they are like a traditional company’s revenue, they are one of our most important metrics for identifying promising crypto investments. (The other metrics are daily active users, price and market cap: read more here.)

In this guide, we bring together the Top Crypto Companies Earning the Most Fees.

Top 5 Crypto Investments, Ranked by Fees

Ethereum

Think of Ethereum as a “world computer” that allows you to run shared applications. Ethereum users pay transaction fees, known as gas fees, to use the computer (i.e., carry out transactions on the Ethereum network). The more people use Ethereum, the more fees the network generates.

As shown in the chart below, Ethereum fees have remained relatively stable over the past year (except in March 2024, when Ethereum completed its Dencun upgrade).

Ethereum gas fees can sometimes be incredibly high due to network congestion, especially during major events. This is why Layer 2 solutions are gaining popularity: they offload some of this work to alternative blockchains, which record your transactions on Ethereum in a more cost-effective way.

In the long run, these L2s are good for Ethereum as they reduce fees and speed up transactions – but in the meantime, some of Ethereum’s fee revenue is consumed by L2s. (See our Investor’s Guide to Layer-2s here.)

Tron

Like Ethereum, Tron is an open-source decentralized blockchain that can execute smart contracts and run decentralized applications (dApps).

Tron generates fees each time a transaction is performed, and costs are based on energy, bandwidth, and transaction type.

In February 2024, Tron’s fee revenue reached an all-time high of $1.8 million, driven by Tron’s regular token burn events, where more than 12 million TRX tokens were removed from circulation. While transaction fees are still charged on the Tron network, a portion of them are regularly used to buy back and burn TRX tokens, reducing supply and theoretically increasing the value of TRX.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the OG cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fees are measured in satoshis per byte, where a satoshi is the smallest unit of bitcoin, and are calculated based on transaction size and user demand for block space. Transaction fees are paid to incentivize miners to validate transactions on the blockchain.

As you can see in the chart below, bitcoin saw a spike in fees in March and April 2024. On April 20, bitcoin transaction fees reached a historical average of $128, coinciding with bitcoin’s fourth halving by halving and the launch of Runes, a new protocol that allows users to create fungible tokens on the bitcoin blockchain. However, rates saw a significant drop the following month as demand for Runes decreased.

Lido Finance

Lido Finance is a liquid staking protocol on the Ethereum blockchain, making it easy for users to stake their ETH and earn rewards. (See our guide to investing in Lido here).

Lido charges a flat 10% fee split between node operators and the DAO treasury. The rate can be changed by the DAO pending a successful vote.

Lido Finance fees have remained relatively stable over the past year, with a small increase in March-April 2024 coinciding with an increase in the token’s price. However, Lido network fees experienced the biggest increase in March and May 2023 when investors were finally able to withdraw their staked ETH.

Uniswap

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange protocol that uses liquidity pools and automated market makers (AMMs) to facilitate peer-to-peer trading. (See our Investor’s Guide to Uniswap here.)

Uniswap charges fees for each trade, distributed proportionally to liquidity providers in a pool. As you will notice from the chart, its fees skyrocketed in April 2024 when it increased its trading fees from 0.15% to 0.25%. The increase will provide long-term financing for potential legal costs and ongoing development.

The relationship between fees and project success

Fees are often directly related to the success of a crypto company.

Fees can be a crucial indicator of a blockchain project’s usefulness, demand, and long-term stability. Fee generation is proof of product/market fit as it shows that users are willing to pay for the services offered by a crypto company.

Additionally, protocols that generate substantial income from fees are more likely to be stable over the long term, as they have a demonstrable revenue stream to support growth and operations.

As an investor, rate analysis can provide a solid foundation for evaluating cryptocurrencies, helping you move beyond speculation. This can lead to more informed investment decisions as studying the growth or decline of rates can help you identify overvalued or undervalued crypto projects.

Conclusion for investors

For individual investors, we recommend avoiding fees whenever possible. (See our guide at How to Avoid Crypto Fees.)

But when we look for big crypto companies to invest in, fees are one of our most important metrics.

Mostly, the fees are good: they show that people are willing to pay for the platform. However, be aware that fees can present barriers, especially for small transactions. They can indicate network congestion, a constant problem for Ethereum and others.

Before investing in a crypto project, we suggest studying its transaction fees and how they are increasing or decreasing. And to learn more about which crypto projects are earning the most fees, stay subscribed to our Bitcoin Market Journal Newsletter.

Fuente