Crypto Twitter talks about tokens and prices. DefiLlama's open data tells a quieter story about where the fees are actually paid . On 6 November 2026 I pulled five of its datasets as flat tables: TVL by chain, top protocols, stablecoins, DEX volumes, and fees and revenue.

Disclosure: I built the export tool used here, DefiLlama DeFi Data Export on Apify. All numbers come from DefiLlama's public API; this is data, not investment advice.

1. The biggest "DeFi" earners are stablecoin issuers

Fees over the last 30 days, top 5 by 24-hour fees:

Protocol Category Fees, last 30 days

Tether Stablecoin issuer $518.9M

Circle (USDC) Stablecoin issuer $207.0M

PumpSwap DEX $91.6M

Hyperliquid Perps Derivatives $85.6M

Polymarket US Prediction market $83.8M

Tether alone booked $518.9M in fees in 30 days. The 13 protocols ranked 3 to 15 by daily fees made about $524M combined .…