Hey there. Happy New Year.
This is The Chain, the first crypto newsletter you’re reading in 2026 (probably).
BTC’s price did nothing last year, but we wanted to see about the projects that DID do things so we know what to watch in 2026.
You know. Top-5 style.
So here’s what we’re covering today:
💲 Which projects are making bank at the end of 2025?
🧠 What 5 chains had the most mindshare?
🛫 The biggest airdrops of 2025 (yes they happened)
Let’s take a look.
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💲 Top 5 Projects by Revenue
We’ve known for a while that revenue is now king in crypto. Gone are the days of a new L1 token going up because of promises about future revenue… traders only care about the here and now numbers that you’re putting up.
So here are the 5 projects that are making the most money as of the end 2025. Any surprises?
(Keep in mind, this is daily revenue.)
Table and data: Artemis Analytics
Hyperliquid ($1.8M)
Pump.fun ($1.2M)
Tron ($1.2M)
Solana ($818.5K)
edgeX ($413.9K)
So that’s where people are spending their crypto, but what chains are dominating people’s minds?
Ok, what is mindshare anyway? Merriam-Webster defines it as “a controlling or predominant hold of one's attention that is gained especially by marketing ploys.”
We define it as “chain have good marketing = everyone think about chain more.”
Take your pick. Either way, we were surprised and then not surprised by the results:
Chart and data: Coingecko
Solana (26.79%)
Base (13.94%)
Ethereum (13.43%)
Sui (11.77%)
BNB Chain (9.05%)
Ok, first off, where the heck is XRP on this list?! (Don’t worry, they were 6th with 4.68% mindshare. Still less than we would’ve guessed.)
And Solana’s lead over the others might look impressive, but it’s actually down by almost 12 whole percentage points from 2024. So Solana looks strong, but not nearly as strong as it did before. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s mindshare increased by about 2% from 2024.
But get this: Sui’s and BNB Chain’s mindshare more than doubled last year. Unreal numbers.
Do you think they’ll push higher in 2026?
🛫 Top 5 Airdrops of the Year
Ah, airdrops. Where fortunes can be made for just messing around on a new crypto exchange. Or, where hours of time can be wasted in hopes of earning an airdrop that will never come.
Good times!
There were some pretty shockingly large airdrops in the crypto industry last year, though you may not have heard of them. Here are the top 5 airdrops from 2025:
Story Protocol: Airdropped 10% of supply, which was $1.4B at its September peak.
BERAchain: Gave 79 million BERA to its loyal NFT holders. At the top, that was worth about $1.2B total (it fell 96% after that though).
Jupiter: the Solana-based DEX that was all the rage early last year did another “Jupuary” drop in January 2025: 700M JUP. At peak, that was $791M.
ANIMEcoin: this coin was launched by the team behind Azuki, and they airdropped 39.5% of supply (395 billion tokens). At the token’s all-time high (ATH), that was worth $711M.
Lighter: this one happened just Tuesday! Lighter, the perp dex competing with Hyperliquid, airdropped a quarter of its token supply to users ($620M total at ATH).
Interested in catching an airdrop in 2026? Here’s a list of potential upcoming events to look out for:
🍟 Extra Crispy Crypto Links
Apparently, Bitcoin could hit $1.4M by 2035. Anyone else tired of hearing analyst predictions?
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is frustrated with Trump’s crypto endeavors.
Crypto gained institutional ground in 2025, but still has major Wall Street enemies in 2026.
A look at how NFT marketplaces like Opensea adapted to survive in 2025
The Senate crypto market structure bill has been punted to early 2026.
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🎤 Let us know what you thought
We really appreciate you reading our newsletter, and we’d love to hear your feedback.
How was this week's edition?
⏳ Wrapping Up
What an honor to send you (probably) your first crypto newsletter of 2026. Here’s to many more.
Same time next week? Sounds good.
Until next time,
- The Chain Team