On-chain activity is increasingly turning into real income for DeFi and DEX platforms. PancakeSwap, for example, shares a portion of the fees with token holders, with some of them providing rewards daily.
On-chain economic activity is becoming a source of daily earnings for a number of blockchains and decentralized protocols. In 2025, the trend of staking returns, but now it is backed by real on-chain revenue, not just promises.
A number of leading networks and DeFi projects have implemented revenue distribution mechanisms, making token ownership more profitable. Now staking is not just a matter of network security, but a tool to support the growth of the entire ecosystem and share in the profits.
Such tokens show growth dynamics, less dependent on short-term volatility. They operate on a fundamental basis of demand and value generation within the blockchain.
Most popular networks have at least a few dApps that generate significant income. The largest volumes are currently concentrated in Ethereum, Solana $SOL , BNB Smart Chain $BNB and TRON.
CAKE is back on top in profitability
The DEX platform PancakeSwap is back on top, now leading in profitability for holders $CAKE . In recent months, activity on PancakeSwap has sharply increased, partly due to trades through #Binance Wallet, leading to a noticeable rise in fees.
According to DeFi Llama, PancakeSwap is currently showing the largest revenue per token holder. The exchange's revenues have returned to levels last seen during the bull market of 2021.
At the moment, CAKE distributes $2.72 million in daily revenue — more than any other protocol or network. Additional incentives come from token burning mechanisms and an updated tokenomics model.
After two years of obscurity, PancakeSwap returned to the top at the beginning of 2025. The wave of interest coincided with the increase in activity in the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem, new incentives, and a campaign to earn Alpha Points for participation in exclusive sales and airdrops from Binance.
