Ethereum Dominates DeFi Lending Revenue in 2025 – Here’s How It’s Leaving Rivals in the Dust

Ethereum isn't just leading the DeFi lending pack—it's lapping it. While competitors scramble for scraps, the original smart contract platform is vacuuming up revenue, proving that first-mover advantage still carries weight in a sector obsessed with the 'next big thing.'

The Network Effect is a Revenue Machine

Forget promises of lower fees or theoretical scalability. Ethereum's real edge is its entrenched, battle-tested ecosystem. Major lending protocols aren't just built on Ethereum; they're woven into its liquidity fabric. This creates a gravitational pull for both capital and developers—a flywheel that turns activity directly into revenue, leaving newer chains playing a costly game of catch-up.

Where Speculation Meets Utility

The revenue surge isn't driven by memecoins alone. It's fueled by sophisticated financial strategies—leveraged yield farming, institutional collateral management, and complex derivatives—that demand Ethereum's deep liquidity and security. While other chains tout transactions per second, Ethereum monetizes trust and complexity, a far more lucrative business model. After all, traditional banks built empires on less.

A Reality Check for the 'Ethereum-Killer' Narrative

Rival chains face a brutal equation: attract enough total value locked to be relevant, but not so much that congestion destroys their low-fee promise. Many are stuck in a cycle of subsidizing activity with token incentives—a kind of financial performance art that looks great on a dashboard until the grants run dry. Real revenue, it turns out, is harder to fake than transaction volume.

Ethereum's lending dominance delivers a clear message: in decentralized finance, liquidity and security are the ultimate moats. The platform has turned its early struggles into structural advantages, forcing the rest of the market to compete on its terms. For now, the throne looks secure—proving that sometimes, the old guard knows exactly where the money is, even in a revolution.

DeFi Lending Still Pays Best On The Ethereum Network

A recent report has underscored Ethereum’s growing dominance within the blockchain sector. The network is solidifying its position as the financial foundation for decentralized finance lending, and the data is starting to present a convincing picture.

A look at the data shared by Leon Waidmann, a market expert and the head of research at On-Chain Foundation, shows that ETH is now the revenue center of DeFi lending. This implies that most of the revenue flowed through the ETH ecosystem, outpacing other major chains like Base, Plasma, and Arbitrum. 

From borrowing fees to interest paid by active users, the ETH network continues to be the key settlement LAYER where value is persistently created. ETH is at the center of the revenue outlines the network’s usage in addition to its ongoing dominance as the fundamental infrastructure driving DeFi’s most lucrative lending activity.

As seen on the chart, ethereum mainnet steadily secured over 80% to 90% of all DeFi lending revenue and activity, reinforcing its increasing role in the financial landscape. Interestingly, this share has remained a dominant force even with the vigorous expansion of the Layer 2 and alt-Layer 1 chains.

Data shows that usage may be fragmented, but fees do not. Meanwhile, at the protocol layer, Waidmann highlighted that concentration is quite stronger. Amid this rising DeFi revenue lending, Aave is the core revenue engine on the Ethereum mainnet, attracting more than 50% of the total lending funds. 

This part of the network was also responsible for over 60% of all active loans on ETH. In the end, the project generated approximately $885 million in fees in 2025 alone, reflecting the significant usage of the network.

While Ethereum mainnet secures balance sheets and profits, layer 2s are optimizing execution and User Experience (UX). Waidmann noted that where confidence and liquidity are greatest, DeFi credit markets converge. “Ethereum Mainnet is not being disrupted, but is being reinforced,” the expert added.

Active ETH Addresses Targeting Its Peak

Another instance of robust engagement across the Ethereum network is a spike in active wallet addresses. Joseph Young, a crypto enthusiast, previously highlighted that the active users on the network are drawing close to its all-time high. Such a rise in active addresses suggests a resurgence of interest and conviction among larger and retail investors.

At the time of the post, about 2.4 million wallet addresses were actively interacting with the network every week. This is an indication that tokenization, stablecoins, and privacy infrastructure are all converging on Ethereum. Currently, Young stated ETH is dominating the big three metas, while expressing his conviction in the network’s prospects.