1kx: Crypto Industry H1 2026 Revenue Down 23% YoY, with Stablecoins, RWA and Other Counter-Cyclical Sectors Growing

Odaily News: According to data from crypto investment firm 1kx, total revenue in the global crypto industry for H1 2026 fell to $47 billion, down 23% year-over-year, a decrease of approximately $14 billion compared to the same period last year. The firm stated that the revenue decline is consistent with bear market cycle characteristics, as traditional crypto revenue streams such as exchanges, brokerage services, wallets, staking, and mining remain highly dependent on asset prices and trading volumes.

1kx pointed out that this round of revenue decline primarily stems from two major areas. On one hand, finance-related revenue saw a noticeable decline. Revenue from centralized exchanges (CEX), derivatives platforms, and market makers decreased by $5.2 billion year-over-year; on-chain DeFi revenue dropped by $1.8 billion, down 32% YoY; and ETF and fund management fee revenue fell by $1.1 billion. On the other hand, blockchain infrastructure revenue continued to weaken. Staking and mining reward revenue decreased by $6.2 billion, while on-chain transaction fees and MEV revenue nearly halved. Currently, blockchain infrastructure revenue accounts for just 25% of total crypto industry revenue, hitting an all-time low.

However, not all sectors have been affected by the cycle. Low-cyclicality businesses such as stablecoins, real-world asset (RWA) issuance, prediction markets, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) grew 14% against the trend in H1, reaching $12 billion in revenue and rising to 26% of total industry revenue. Among them: stablecoin and RWA issuer revenue increased by $700 million; stablecoin payment cards and payment businesses grew by approximately $100 million; prediction market fee revenue surged about 10-fold, adding roughly $300 million; DePIN fee revenue nearly doubled; and on-chain middleware revenue grew about 70%, primarily driven by Chainlink.

1kx stated that although DeFi and financial business revenue declined in absolute terms, they still hold the largest share of the industry, rising to 64%. Consumer on-chain application revenue performed relatively more steadily, declining approximately 20% year-over-year. For comparison, at the lowest point of the previous crypto bear market cycle (H2 2022), industry semi-annual revenue was approximately $28 billion, while the current bear market period has maintained $47 billion in revenue during the same timeframe, with roughly a quarter coming from emerging businesses that continued to grow during the bear market.

1kx noted that its revenue accounting methodology includes trackable on-chain transaction fee revenue, staking yields and other income, as well as off-chain revenue publicly disclosed by Coinbase or estimated for platforms such as Binance. The composition of these three revenue categories has remained largely stable compared to last year.