Key Takeaways
- • Grayscale Investments identified 15 revenue-generating crypto protocols—including Hyperliquid (HYPE), Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), Lido (LDO), and Jupiter (JUP)—trading at single-digit trailing 12-month revenue multiples despite generating substantial on-chain cash flows.
- • Hyperliquid leads the cohort as a revenue heavyweight, generating approximately $800 million in protocol revenue during 2025, positioning it among the highest-earning applications in the crypto industry.
- • Grayscale argues that crypto protocols operate with significantly lower overhead costs than traditional businesses, enabling larger portions of protocol revenue to convert directly into earnings or cash flow, creating a potential valuation gap relative to traditional finance comparables.
- • The 15 protocols identified are predominantly tied to financial use cases and infrastructure layers (decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, liquid staking, and oracle services), suggesting concentrated exposure to DeFi and fintech-adjacent segments.
- • Current market conditions present an attractive fundamental entry point for investors, as many revenue-producing applications have continued building products and attracting users despite an extended bear cycle in crypto markets.
Summary
Grayscale Investments has published a comprehensive analysis identifying the top 15 revenue-generating crypto protocols currently trading at valuations that the firm characterizes as undervalued relative to their financial fundamentals. The list includes Hyperliquid (HYPE), Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), Lido (LDO), Jupiter (JUP), Pancakeswap (CAKE), Sky (SKY), Aerodrome (AERO), Wellfi (WLFI), Metronome (MET), EthFi (ETHFI), Lit (LIT), Cards (CARDS), Raydium (RAY), and Pump (PUMP). Grayscale's analysis focuses specifically on on-chain applications that generate meaningful protocol revenue directly from user activity, providing a quantifiable financial performance basis for valuation assessment.
The core thesis underlying Grayscale's report centers on the structural advantages that blockchain protocols possess relative to traditional revenue-generating businesses. Unlike conventional enterprises requiring substantial overhead—including large employee bases, office infrastructure, and complex operational hierarchies—crypto protocols operate with dramatically lower cost structures. This cost differential allows a substantially larger percentage of protocol-generated revenue to flow through to earnings or cash equivalents, creating divergence between traditional valuation multiples and the actual financial productivity of these applications. Grayscale notes that many of the highest-earning protocols currently trade at single-digit trailing 12-month revenue multiples, a valuation metric typically associated with mature, lower-growth industries rather than productive digital assets.
Hyperliquid (HYPE), a perpetuals trading platform, substantially outperforms the remainder of the cohort, generating approximately $800 million in protocol revenue during 2025. This positions Hyperliquid as one of the crypto industry's most profitable applications and serves as the marquee example of Grayscale's thesis that significant revenue-generating capacity can exist alongside compressed valuations in the current market environment.
Grayscale contends that the broader crypto market has not yet fully reflected the financial strength and earning potential embedded in these revenue-producing protocols. Despite the crypto sector's extended bear market cycle in recent years, many of the identified applications have maintained momentum building products, expanding user bases, and sustaining cash generation. This fundamental resilience, combined with the current valuation compression, creates what Grayscale frames as a meaningful opportunity for value-oriented investors. The firm's analysis suggests that investors focused on revenue generation and fundamental financial metrics may identify attractive entry points among this cohort of productive, lower-overhead digital assets.
The core thesis underlying Grayscale's report centers on the structural advantages that blockchain protocols possess relative to traditional revenue-generating businesses. Unlike conventional enterprises requiring substantial overhead—including large employee bases, office infrastructure, and complex operational hierarchies—crypto protocols operate with dramatically lower cost structures. This cost differential allows a substantially larger percentage of protocol-generated revenue to flow through to earnings or cash equivalents, creating divergence between traditional valuation multiples and the actual financial productivity of these applications. Grayscale notes that many of the highest-earning protocols currently trade at single-digit trailing 12-month revenue multiples, a valuation metric typically associated with mature, lower-growth industries rather than productive digital assets.
Hyperliquid (HYPE), a perpetuals trading platform, substantially outperforms the remainder of the cohort, generating approximately $800 million in protocol revenue during 2025. This positions Hyperliquid as one of the crypto industry's most profitable applications and serves as the marquee example of Grayscale's thesis that significant revenue-generating capacity can exist alongside compressed valuations in the current market environment.
Grayscale contends that the broader crypto market has not yet fully reflected the financial strength and earning potential embedded in these revenue-producing protocols. Despite the crypto sector's extended bear market cycle in recent years, many of the identified applications have maintained momentum building products, expanding user bases, and sustaining cash generation. This fundamental resilience, combined with the current valuation compression, creates what Grayscale frames as a meaningful opportunity for value-oriented investors. The firm's analysis suggests that investors focused on revenue generation and fundamental financial metrics may identify attractive entry points among this cohort of productive, lower-overhead digital assets.
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