Grayscale Research named five DeFi tokens as having genuine fundamental value. The report dropped June 16. It cited nearly $25 billion in cumulative protocol fees across DeFi since 2023.
The five tokens: HYPE, AAVE, UNI, SKY, and MAPLE. That’s according to BeInCrypto’s coverage. Grayscale’s framing isn’t about price momentum. It’s about revenue and transparent token economics.
BeInCrypto’s summary of the report quotes Grayscale directly: “crypto is repricing from narrative to fundamentals.” The firm added that “protocols with real revenue, disciplined capital allocation, and transparent token economics are outperforming.” UNI and HYPE stood out specifically. Both return close to 100% of earnings to token holders. Transparent payout models. That’s per BeInCrypto’s coverage.
Uniswap is the dominant decentralized exchange by volume. Aave leads decentralized lending. Both are Ethereum-native. Both are battle-tested with years of on-chain activity and audited smart contracts.
Then there’s SKY and MAPLE. SKY is MakerDAO rebranded. One of DeFi’s oldest protocols. Maple runs institutional on-chain credit markets. Their inclusion is a signal. Grayscale isn’t just picking brand names. It’s running a revenue-based filter.
HYPE is different. It’s tied to Hyperliquid, a high-performance perpetuals exchange. It’s not Ethereum-native. Its inclusion suggests chain-agnostic criteria. That’s BeInCrypto’s read from secondary sourcing, not a direct pull from Grayscale’s primary document.
Meanwhile, The Defiant reported Grayscale’s DeFi Fund has started trading. Ticker: DEFG. UNI makes up roughly 70% of the fund. AAVE, MKR, CRV, and COMP round out the rest. It’s structured exposure. No direct token custody required. That format works for regulated allocators.
The timing isn’t subtle. Institutional capital has kept DeFi at arm’s length for years. Regulatory ambiguity. Smart contract risk. The perception that token holders don’t actually benefit from protocol success. Grayscale’s framework directly challenges that. Fee generation. Holder distributions. It’s a counterargument built from on-chain data.
The $25 billion fee figure comes from Grayscale’s report as cited by BeInCrypto. It hasn’t been independently verified. Verified or not, fund managers and treasury allocators are going to be looking at it.
Capital flows don’t shift overnight. But Grayscale just published a framework treating DeFi tokens as cash-flow assets. Not speculative instruments. That changes the conversation.
