🔎 Analysis of Revenue Generating Web3 Projects

Narratives come and go. But at the end of the day, every protocol is a business. And businesses need revenue to survive.

Together with Solus Group, the alliance of Web3 degen-companies, we dug into the data to answer one question:

Which protocols are actually earning in Web3?

▪️ $4.2B in total protocol revenue
▪️ $2.1B in the last 12 months
▪️ Dominant model: transaction fees

Some takeaways:

- Solana’s Jupiter, Jito, and Meteora are leading through real usage, not incentives.
- Ethereum’s Lido, Ethena, and Morpho show how capital flows can be monetized predictably.
- Tokenless products are quietly printing, proving you don’t need complexity to capture value.

🔗Read the full report:

https://solus.partners/Revenue-Generating-Apps-with-Simplicity-Group

One of our portcos, Zoth, went through a serious exploit during mainnet expansion.

Instead of vanishing or stalling, the team handled it.

They added AI-powered monitoring, external audits, open-source infrastructure, a public bug bounty, and improved governance. Compensation came in the form of stable assets and vested $ZOTH, backed by the ecosystem.

The community stayed, with retention above 80%. Investors backed them with a $15M token commitment from Bolts Capital.


best in class crisis management, rebuilding the roadmap, and back on track.

Excited to be working with Folks Finance!

Folks Finance is a community-driven, permissionless DeFi platform live across multiple networks. With over $123M in total value locked, Folks offers a full suite of tools to lend, borrow, stake, and trade.

Their flagship products include xChain, which allows users to deposit and borrow across chains like BNB, Polygon, Arbitrum, Monad, Base, Ethereum, Avalanche; and the Algorand app, the largest protocol on Algorand offering everything from lending and liquid staking to DEX routing and loan looping.

One of our clients, Nebulus Finance: The AUM Protocol, came in for a light audit, just to "confirm" their token utilities and economy were fine.

But they weren’t. At all.

The audit was brutal. Token had no real connection to the product. Utilities looked good on paper but did nothing to drive usage, revenue, or value accrual. We told them exactly that.

And that was the problem - the product was the real deal, but the token didn’t do it justice.

They didn’t argue. They rebuilt.

A month later, the client came back. We are doing the re-audit now, and the difference is massive:

The economy makes sense.
Utilities are actually tied to the product.
Buy pressure, value sinks, user flows - all clicks.

The documentation is one of the most comprehensive sets of policy notes we’ve seen from any project.

-

If you think your token's fine, always double-check. If you’re not sure where the value comes from, fix it.

We’ll tell you if it’s broken. And we’ll help you make it work.

Not all top protocols are actually earning. So we checked.

Here are the top 10 protocols on Ethereum (selected based on market cap), ranked by annualized revenue.

Read the full 76-page analysis we put together with Solus Group:

https://solus.partners/Revenue-Generating-Apps-with-Simplicity-Group

Lightweight, high-volume models without native tokens outperform in absolute revenue terms.

Among the top 5 protocols by annual revenue, 4 are tokenless:
Meteora
Pump.fun
Photon
Phantom

The only one with a native token is Solana-native Jupiter.

We analyzed the projects actually generating revenue - and we’re sharing the full 76-page report completely free:

https://solus.partners/Revenue-Generating-Apps-with-Simplicity-Group

Appreciate you spreading the word.

Polkadot's governance lets DOT holders lock tokens for more voting power. Longer lock = Higher conviction

Turns out, most users aren't even locking for long:

~60% of votes come from no lock, or only 7-day lock

Only 16.2% of voters commit to 28 days for a 3x multiplier

Simplicity didn’t start by accident

Here is the why behind it all.



Watch the full episode with Alex: https://youtu.be/nXdk5oEnoWE?si=o0rCx1P2_-T3ut4j

Thanks to ChainEye Research for mentioning us among the top research contributors in Web3.

Appreciate the recognition. Now back to building the best-in-industry reports.

🔗 https://txtaan.notion.site/Research-Resources-c09bf10951594a25a3cdab91a6a6b23b

Meet our co-founder Daniel Malinovski at Philippine Blockchain Week this June in Manila!

Simplicity Group has worked with teams across Europe, MENA, and LATAM - and now we’re heading to Southeast Asia.

Catch Daniel in the Philippines June 5–11 to chat tokenomics, strategy, documentation, intros, and what makes a TGE successful.

Philippine Blockchain Week (PBW) 2025
🗓 June 10–11, 2025
🎟 Tickets: https://pbw.ph/

🚨 Big update from Simplicity Group

After working with 120 clients, from fundraising stages to T1 CEXs, we've bundled everything we know into one offer:

The TGE Package.

A complete system to take your project from private round to public listing and beyond.

- Tokenomics audit & modelling
- CEX, Launchpad, and MM introductions
- Marketing & partnerships
- Strategy & execution support

Backed by macro, behavioral, and market data.

Book a call: https://calendly.com/enquiries-simplicity/work-together

Let’s launch properly.

Pleasure to be working with great companies like Folks Finance. What they have achieved on Algorand (as a secondary objective) is worth a closer look:

275M ALGO locked into the protocol to mint xALGO, their liquid staking token.

After Algorand moved away from governance-based staking, the team launched a proper yield-bearing LST.

- APR: ~6%
- Revenue potential: 1.65M ALGO/year
- Current fee: 0% (incentivized growth phase)
- Planned fee: 10% on rewards

A strong case of protocol-level adaptation and product execution 🔥

"Here’s the advice I’d give myself if I was starting again"


Forget the token

Focus on ...