1kx Report: Blockchain Industry Revenue on Track for $100B in 2026

Global blockchain revenues are projected to reach approximately $100 billion in 2026, marking a 28% drop year-over-year that aligns with a broader decline in crypto asset valuations, according to research published by venture firm 1kx on Oct. 29 ¹. The contraction follows a peak in 2025, when industry revenues reached roughly $140 billion ¹.

Despite the broader market pullback, revenue composition moved sharply toward commercial adoption outside crypto-native infrastructure ¹. Institutional clients and broader economy activities—such as tokenized assets, payments, and prediction markets—generated 30% of total industry revenue in 2026, up from 7% in 2021 ¹. In the third quarter of 2026, broader economy segments generated roughly $5.3 billion, surpassing blockchain infrastructure revenues of $5.1 billion for the first time ¹.

Infrastructure Margins Compress

DeFi and financial services continue to drive the bulk of sector turnover, generating an estimated $65 billion, or 66% of the 2026 total ¹. Offchain venues captured $38 billion of that sum, led by centralized exchanges with $28 billion, while prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket expanded from under $50 million in early 2025 to surpass $1.5 billion in the first half of 2026 ¹. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle grew reserve income by 10% year-over-year, delivering $8.3 billion in annualized run-rate earnings ¹.

Conversely, blockchain infrastructure income contracted 39% year-over-year in the first half of 2026 to $12 billion ¹. Actual onchain transaction fees fell by 50% to $1.2 billion, even as network usage climbed, with aggregate transaction counts expanding 18% to 127 billion across 103 monitored networks ¹. Staking and mining operations accounted for $20 billion of infrastructure run-rate earnings, leaving base-layer transaction fees at less than 3% of aggregate industry revenue ¹.