Venture firm 1kx reports that users are on pace to spend nearly $20 billion on blockchain transaction fees in 2025, from trading and gaming to tokenized assets and decentralized apps. That’s not speculative capital – it’s money spent directly by users to access blockchain-based services.
Only a few years ago, annual onchain fees barely crossed $2 billion. The surge, even without reaching the 2021 peak, paints a different picture of the market: fewer meme-fueled bubbles, more functional demand.
“Fees are proof that people are finding value,” one of the report’s authors said. “They’re a tax on actual usage – not hype.”
From Speculation to Service Economy
What’s quietly happening under the surface is a transition from speculation to service. Each transaction fee represents someone using crypto infrastructure not to gamble, but to do something: mint a token, swap assets, verify identity, play a game, or fund a project.
That trend marks the arrival of what analysts are calling the “utility phase” of blockchain. Protocols that once depended on bull markets are now collecting steady, recurring revenues from users. It’s a sign of real economic activity – and one that traditional finance can finally measure.
Institutional Pressure Meets Onchain Momentum
The growth in fee-based activity comes as institutional adoption accelerates. Major financial players like JPMorgan, BlackRock, and BNY Mellon are no longer experimenting – they’re launching full-scale tokenization platforms.
JPMorgan recently put one of its private equity funds on-chain via its Kinexys system. BNY Mellon teamed up with Securitize to digitize collateralized loan obligations, while BlackRock has hinted that its next generation of funds will rely on blockchain infrastructure.
These moves have quietly created a bridge between Wall Street and DeFi, linking tokenized capital with liquidity providers and onchain clearing systems.
Tokenized Assets Take the Spotlight
Nowhere is this convergence clearer than in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Once a niche experiment, it’s now one of blockchain’s fastest-growing markets. Data from RWA.xyz shows the value of tokenized assets (excluding stablecoins) exceeding $35 billion by late 2025 – double what it was a year ago.
The difference today is that those assets aren’t just being issued – they’re being traded, borrowed against, and incorporated into new DeFi models. Fees collected from those activities are rising faster than the total asset value itself, showing deepening user engagement.
A Self-Reinforcing Cycle
What started as an industry obsessed with speculation may now be building its own flywheel of real demand. Each new onchain product attracts more users, which produces more fees, which in turn funds more innovation. The industry is beginning to resemble an early-stage tech ecosystem – one where revenue replaces hype as the growth engine.
Beyond the Tokens
It’s easy to miss this shift amid the noise of daily price moves. But under the surface, the blockchain economy is quietly proving it can function as a real business sector, with measurable income streams and sustainable incentives.
As 1kx’s analysts concluded, the clearest sign of progress isn’t a price chart – it’s a line item. The one labeled revenue.