Sky Protocol Shatters Expectations: $338M Revenue Cements 2025 as Top Fee Producer

Forget the roadmap projections—Sky Protocol just printed its own reality.

The Fee Machine Awakens

While legacy finance wrestles with spreadsheets and quarterly forecasts, a new breed of protocol quietly built a revenue engine that left blue-chip DeFi in the dust. The numbers don't lie: a staggering $338 million in fees generated, catapulting this network into the absolute top tier of blockchain economies. That's not growth; that's a gravitational shift.

Architecture Over Hype

This wasn't a fluke or a token pump. It was architecture. Sky Protocol's stack—from its consensus mechanism to its fee market design—was engineered for one thing: sustainable value capture. It bypassed the speculative frenzy and went straight for the utility jugular, attracting real, fee-paying transactions while others chased vaporware trends. The market voted with its gas fees.

The New Benchmark

Let's be clear: $338M sets a new benchmark. It redefines what 'success' looks like for a Layer 1 or application-chain. It moves the goalposts from 'total value locked' to actual, realized economic throughput. For projects still measuring success in Twitter followers, this is a cold splash of reality. The era of building for fees is here, and the first major winner has been crowned.

The protocol didn't just have a good year; it executed a masterclass in economic design. Traditional VCs are now left reverse-engineering its on-chain treasury flows—a fitting end for an industry that's always a cycle behind. The future of finance isn't just decentralized; it's ruthlessly efficient.

Sky Protocol: leaner and a better fee producer

Sky Protocol showed a successful pivot from the Maker DAO stablecoin mechanism. The chief tool of the protocol was the adaptable savings rate, which is currently recovered to 4%, from lows of 2.75%. During previous cycles, Sky Protocol offered up to 12.5% return on USDS. 

The protocol still carries the legacy DAI token, which is also active in DeFi. 

During the 2025 market cycle, Sky Protocol operated with a lower value locked, lagging behind Aave. Sky Protocol drew in $5.34B, decreasing from $9.18B in early 2025. Spark Lend carries $2.43B in liquidity, ranking within the top 5 on-chain lenders. 

Despite the lower liquidity, Sky Protocol grew its fee production to a higher baseline, drawing in around $1.13M in 24 hours. 

USDS also supplies near-record liquidity, with a supply of over 9.57B tokens. The ecosystem continued to grow slowly in the first months of 2026, despite the downturn in ETH and BTC. 

USDS expands its DEX activity

In addition to being used for lending, USDS is spreading across the DeFi ecosystem. In the past four months, USDS volumes on decentralized markets grew to new peaks. 

The token is most actively trading on the new Manifest DEX, as well as Curve, its traditional legacy market. Recently, sui announced it will add suiUSDSe, a native version of the Sky Protocol token. 

Over the course of 2025, Token Terminal data shows USDS activity on Sky Protocol expanded by 400%, based on more active transfers. Those transfers also translated into higher fees. Sky Protocol shows the rising demand for alternative sources of liquidity and reliable lending vaults to tap the value of crypto collaterals. Lenders also put their USDS to work, making it one of the key stablecoins to distribute passive income.

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