Stablecoins quietly became the biggest winners in crypto during 2025, and no company benefited more than Tether. According to CoinGecko Research, Tether topped all crypto protocols by revenue last year, bringing in an impressive $5.2 billion. That figure alone made up 41.9% of the total revenue generated by 168 tracked crypto protocols, showing just how dominant stablecoins have become.
Tether wasn’t alone at the top. In fact, stablecoin issuers dominated the entire ranking. Just four stablecoin projects generated nearly $8.3 billion, or 65.7% of all protocol revenue in 2025. While many parts of the crypto market struggled with volatility, stablecoins proved to be one of the few consistent earners.
Tron ranked second among blockchains, posting about $3.5 billion in revenue. Its success came largely from being the most popular network for USDT transactions, giving it a major advantage in daily activity and fees. The remaining six projects in the top 10 were mostly trading platforms, whose earnings rose and fell sharply with market conditions.
The findings come from CoinGecko’s 2025 Annual Crypto Industry Report, which tracked the industry through its first annual market downturn since 2022. While prices weakened, the report shows that not all sectors were affected equally.
Trading platforms had a rough ride. Their revenues closely followed market mood and speculative trends, especially around meme coins. Wallet app Phantom, for example, earned $35.2 million in January during the peak of Solana’s meme coin boom. By December, as hype faded, that number had dropped to just $8.5 million.
This pattern repeated across many platforms. Revenues were strong in the first quarter but fell sharply after October’s massive $19 billion liquidation event, which pushed markets into a bearish phase. For most of the year, total monthly protocol revenue hovered between $3 billion and $3.5 billion.
Meanwhile, stablecoins moved in the opposite direction. Their total market value jumped 48.9%, adding $102.1 billion and reaching a record $311 billion. This steady growth gave issuers reliable income even when crypto prices were falling.
One notable newcomer was PayPal’s PYUSD, which became the fifth-largest stablecoin. Its market cap rose 48.4% to $3.6 billion, helped by payouts to YouTube creators and a 4.25% yield offered through Spark Savings Vault.
By the end of 2025, the total crypto market cap stood at $3 trillion, down 10.4% year over year. Yet trading activity remained strong, with daily volumes peaking at $161.8 billion in Q4 due to heightened volatility.
Institutional players were active too. Digital Asset Treasury Companies spent $49.7 billion to buy more than 5% of all BTC and ETH. However, buying slowed late in the year as falling prices forced firms to focus on share buybacks instead.
Overall, 2025 made one thing clear: while trading platforms ride the highs and lows of the market, stablecoins have become crypto’s most reliable business — and Tether is firmly leading the pack.
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