OAK Research: Stablecoin Revenue Not Flowing to Public Chains

French crypto market intelligence agency OAK Research released a report on October 30, indicating that the market capitalization of stablecoins has increased from $4 billion in January 2020 to approximately $298 billion, reaching a peak of $310 billion in April 2023, which is more than three times the total locked value of all DeFi. In the third quarter of 2026, Tether and Circle combined generated approximately $2.1 billion in revenue, while the fees from 13 public chains totaled $285 million during the same period. The report analyzed the revenue sources of issuers, noting that in the second quarter of 2026, Circle's total revenue of $701.3 million included 95% from reserves, amounting to $667.7 million, which is only a 5% year-on-year increase; the on-chain transaction volume of USDC increased by 151% to $14.8 trillion, with an average supply increase of 25%, while the reserve yield decreased by 66 basis points to 3.49%. Tether's average supply grew by 10.6% year-on-year, with quarterly revenue of approximately $1.5 billion. In terms of specific data, in the third quarter of 2026, Ethereum had an average of $146 billion in custodial stablecoins, with fees of only $34.6 million; Solana held 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 of approximately $730 million corresponding to its custodial stablecoins; by the third quarter of 2026, issuer revenue was about $986 million, while Ethereum's fees were $34.6 million. Stablecoins currently account for approximately 28% of Aave deposits, 37% of Morpho, and 84% of Hyperliquid.

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