The Verticalisation Thesis: How Blockchain Revenue Models Are Evolving

Questions This Report Answers

What is blockchain verticalisation?

A chain growing by owning one high-value product or revenue stream instead of renting blockspace to many outside apps. A horizontal chain earns gas on whatever apps it attracts. A vertical chain is the app, or is tightly tied to one, so it keeps a much bigger share of the activity it enables. Hyperliquid, which runs its own perp DEX, is the clearest example.

Why are blockchain fees falling?

Blockspace became a commodity. Competing L1s, L2s and blockspace providers are interchangeable for most uses, the race for cheaper transactions pushed fees down, and the Dencun upgrade in 2024 moved rollup data into near-free blob space. Ethereum's chain fees fell from $9.91 billion in 2021 to $523 million in 2025, a 94.7% drop.

How does Hyperliquid make money?

Mostly from its own perp DEX, which earned $881 million over the past year against $10.4 million from HyperEVM gas. It also takes 50% of HIP-3 market revenue (about $24 million since launch), earns from builder codes and priority fees (about $4 million since April 2026), and receives 90% of the reserve income on USDC used on the platform, worth an extra $130 million to $150 million a year. Most fees go to HYPE buybacks.

What is HIP-3 on Hyperliquid?

HIP-3 lets anyone deploy their own perp markets on Hyperliquid by staking at least 500,000 HYPE, in exchange for sharing 50% of the revenue with the protocol. TradeXYZ used it to list perps on the S&P 500, TSLA, NVDA and crude oil, and its markets grew to over 30% of Hyperliquid's open interest, peaking near $3 billion. HIP-4 applies the same model to outcome markets with a 1 million HYPE stake.

What is Arbitrum Timeboost and how much has it made?

Timeboost is an auction for transaction priority that the Arbitrum DAO introduced in April 2025. It has generated about $7.5 million in fees, roughly half of the $13.2 million Arbitrum earned as a chain over the past year. Arbitrum's daily revenue still fell about 40% over the year, so we see Timeboost as a bolt-on that cannot offset cheaper blockspace on its own.

Why do exchanges like Coinbase and Binance run their own chains?

To own onchain distribution, not to sell blockspace. A chain lets the exchange keep the DeFi revenue its users generate and settle its own balance-sheet products. Base earned $64.0 million over the past year and Coinbase keeps all of it; BSC processes 18.7 million transactions a day at about $0.002 each to keep BNB useful. Each chain's results track its parent's exchange volume.

Are most blockchains overvalued?

On fee income, most are. As of 12 June 2026, Hyperliquid traded at 16 times sales and Tron at 67 times, while Solana traded at 1,078 times and Ethereum at 1,701 times. Those last two only make sense if the market values ETH and SOL as money rather than as claims on cash flow. Because HYPE buybacks tie the token to revenue, Hyperliquid's valuation is the most defensible of the group.