In March, the majority of major DeFi protocols saw significant declines in total revenue. Fees paid to the protocol or token holders are included in revenue, but fees paid to the supply side are not.
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In March, revenue from Solana-based DeFi protocols like Pump.fun, Jito, and Raydium totaled approximately $42 million. These numbers are about 55% lower than they were in February and about 75% lower than their previous record high in January.
Pancakeswap’s March revenue at BNB Chain was just $21 million, a 54 percent decrease from the previous month. Meanwhile, Ethena, Lido, Aave, Curve, Compound, and Sushi are DeFi protocols based on Ethereum that have displayed similar patterns. In March, this collection of protocols only brought in $24.5 million in revenue, a decrease of over 52% and 65% from February and January, respectively. Interestingly, unlike its peers, MakerDAO (now known as Sky) experienced a month-over-month increase in revenue, as it generated $10 million in March, up 11%. Out of the eleven protocols mentioned thus far, MakerDAO (Sky) is the only one whose revenue increased positively month over month.
A general decline in on-chain activity and trading volumes across all major blockchains was probably to blame for the significant drop in DeFi sector revenue. This has directly contributed to similarly poor returns from DeFi tokens so far in 2025, as evidenced by the fact that GMCI’s DeFi Index, GMDEFI, is currently down 40% year-to-date. Uniswap, Aave, Jupiter, Ethena, Maker, PancakeSwap, and Ethena are just a few of the many DeFi projects represented in GMCI’s GMDEFI index. This is an excerpt from The Block’s Data & Insights newsletter. Examine the numbers that make up the most interesting trends in the industry. Disclaimer:
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