According to a report by Binance Research, decentralized applications (dApps) represented 12 out of 15 protocols with the most significant revenues in October, amounting to $164 million.
This suggests growing blockchain adoption, fueled by trading bots and decentralized exchanges.
The report highlighted that dApp interactions have steadily risen in recent months, topping all but three most popular blockchains: Tron, Ethereum, and Solana. Together, these three networks raked in $182 million in monthly revenue.
The growing value captured by dApps indicates a potential takeover by these protocols of the largest revenue share currently controlled by blockchains.
Speculation driving revenues
The report highlighted that DEX and trading bot-related dApps were the primary revenue generators due to the recent rise in speculative trading of memecoins.
Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun and trading bot Photon, both Solana-based applications, captured $29 million in revenue last month.
The list of dApps with the most significant revenues registered in October includes four other trading bots: Trojan, BONKbot, Maestro, and Banana Gun. Together with Photon, these applications netted $67 million in monthly revenue, nearly 41% of the total registered by dApps.
Uniswap registered $16 million in revenue, followed by PancakeSwap and Aerodrome’s $10 million and $9 million, respectively.
The combined fee value collected by DEX and trading bots surpasses $100 million, highlighting that users prefer trading-related dApps.
Aside from trading applications, the report also listed money markets Aave and Sky (former Maker), which captured $26 million in fees. Liquid staking protocol Lido wraps up the list of 12 dApps with the most significant revenue in October, with $7 million captured.
Overfunding infrastructure
The report also questions if infrastructure projects, such as layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, are overfunded, given fees collected by dApps.
According to Rootdata, projects building infrastructure in the blockchain industry received over $1.2 billion in funding between December 2019 and October 2024. The amount exceeds the combined funds pledged to DeFi, tooling, and gaming applications.
Despite arguing that these infrastructure investments are essential, the report claimed that new applications seeking product-market fit are fundamental to attracting new users and boosting the blockchain industry.