French research institution OAK: Stablecoin revenue has not flowed back to the public chain
On October 30, the French cryptocurrency market intelligence agency OAK Research released a report titled "Stablecoins Generate Huge Revenue but Do Not Flow to Public Chains," authored by Lilian Aliaga. The report states that the market capitalization of stablecoins has increased from $4 billion in January 2020 to approximately $298 billion currently, having reached $310 billion at the end of April this year, which is more than three times the total locked value of all DeFi. In the third quarter of 2026, Tether and Circle's combined revenue is approximately $2.1 billion, while the fees from the 13 public chains tracked by the agency totaled $285 million during the same period.The report separately compares the sources of revenue on both sides. Issuers primarily earn interest on reserve assets: of Circle's total revenue of $701.3 million in the second quarter of 2026, reserve income accounted for 95%, or $667.7 million, which is only a 5% year-on-year increase; during the same period, the on-chain transaction volume of USDC increased by 151% to $14.8 trillion, the average supply increased by 25%, while the reserve yield decreased by 66 basis points to 3.49%. Tether's average supply increased by 10.6% year-on-year, and DefiLlama estimates its quarterly revenue to still be around $1.5 billion. Public chains only charge fees based on transactions, and the custody scale itself does not generate revenue.In terms of specific data, in the third quarter of 2026, Ethereum's average custody of stablecoins was $146 billion, with fees of only $34.6 million; Solana's custody was less than $16 billion, with fees of $62.9 million, of which only $6.7 million remained on the protocol side. In the first quarter of 2024, Ethereum's fees were $1.17 billion, higher than the issuer revenue corresponding to its custody of stablecoins, which was about $730 million; by the third quarter of 2026, issuer revenue was approximately $986 million, while Ethereum's fees were $34.6 million. The report also states that stablecoins currently account for about 28% of Aave deposits, 37% of Morpho, and 84% of Hyperliquid.