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BIS Research Uses Token Terminal to Track Crypto Fee Migration
BIS Working Paper No. 1335 uses Token Terminal fee data to show Ethereum and Solana each generated $500M-$600M in annual fees by late 2025. The research finds users migrate to lower-cost chains, challenging moats.
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The Bank for International Settlements is now citing Token Terminal data in its published research on crypto markets. BIS Working Paper No. 1335, released in March 2026, references the platform's fee revenue estimates for major Layer 1 networks.
By late 2025, Ethereum and Solana each generated annualized fee revenues in the range of $500 million to $600 million, according to the data. Tron fell in a similar range. Token Terminal tracks standardized metrics across more than 100 chains, covering fees and revenue in a format comparable across networks. Another BIS bulletin on blockchain consensus and fragmentation also uses the platform's figures alongside DeFiLlama data.
The working paper frames the fee structure as a fragmentation problem. When fees spike on one chain, users tend to move to lower-cost alternatives. This dynamic spreads liquidity and activity across dozens of competing chains, each with its own fee model and security design. The network effects that concentrate activity in traditional finance do not carry over to crypto.