The Verticalisation Thesis: How Blockchain Revenue Models Are Evolving
Covering the expansion of revenue streams by blockchains
Data snapshot: July 2026. Figures are preserved from the published report and are not live market data.
“The old business model of selling blockspace is not enough to justify the high valuations of multiple blockchains.”
▮ The numbers that matter
Executive Summary
Blockchains began as businesses that sold blockspace, but cheaper execution, rollup scaling, and competition from faster chains have compressed that revenue stream. The report maps the shift from horizontal ecosystems that rent neutral infrastructure to verticalised chains that own high-value primitives directly. Hyperliquid is the clearest proof point: the chain captures exchange, builder, market-deployer, priority-fee, and stablecoin-alignment revenue rather than relying on gas fees alone.
Key findings
- 01Ethereum chain fees fell from $9.91 billion in 2021 to $523 million in 2025, a 94.7% decline as execution and rollup settlement became cheaper.
- 02Hyperliquid generated more than $1 billion in fees over the previous 12 months, including $881 million from its perpetual DEX and about $24 million from HIP-3.
- 03Ethereum, Tron, Solana and Hyperliquid held a combined $48 billion in TVL, but the report found revenue aligned more closely with transaction and stablecoin settlement than with TVL alone.
Covered in the report
Inside
- 01Introduction
- 02The Decline of Blockchain Revenue
- 03Selling Blockspace is No Longer Enough
- 04The Case for Verticalisation: Hyperliquid
- 05Growing Exchange Chains
- 06The Case for New Chains
- 07Are most blockchains overvalued?
- 08Conclusion
Method and Data Boundary
Castle and Kaiko compare chain fees, application fees, TVL, stablecoin balances and product-level revenue across established and new networks. The report uses Hyperliquid as the main verticalisation case study, then tests the thesis against exchange chains, L2s and purpose-built networks.
- Published
- July 2026
- Data snapshot
- July 2026