Public companies are playing a steadily larger role in the blockchain economy, according to a new revenue report from crypto investment firm 1kx. The share of blockchain industry revenue attr
Public companies are playing a steadily larger role in the blockchain economy, according to a new revenue report from crypto investment firm 1kx. The share of blockchain industry revenue attributed to publicly traded companies rose to 16% in 2026—more than doubling from 7% in 2022—while overall blockchain revenue is projected to shrink.
1kx projects that total blockchain-related revenue will fall 28% year over year to about $100 billion in 2026. The firm’s analysis covers data from more than 2,600 protocols and the earnings reports of 104 publicly traded companies through the third quarter, offering a broad view of where money is flowing across both infrastructure and real-world applications.
1kx attributes the growing contribution from public companies partly to the sector’s expanding footprint in traditional markets, including new stock market listings. The report points to Circle’s 2025 initial public offering as an example of how token and stablecoin-related businesses have become more embedded in public-company reporting.
Beyond new listings, the firm also links the rise to revenue growth among existing public participants. In particular, the 10 largest publicly traded companies in 1kx’s sample reportedly doubled their blockchain-related revenue over the past three years—helping lift the group’s weight in the overall industry despite a predicted contraction in aggregate revenue.
Revenue is still dominated by a small set of companies. In the first half of 2026, Coinbase and Circle generated about $3.3 billion in combined blockchain-related revenue, while publicly traded Bitcoin miners earned roughly $2 billion. Traditional financial and consumer-facing firms—including JPMorgan, BlackRock, CME Group, Visa, and Robinhood—contributed another $1.1 billion collectively, according to 1kx.
A central theme of the report is that blockchain economics are increasingly driven by activity that goes beyond core infrastructure. In the third quarter, revenue from “broader economic activity” surpassed infrastructure revenue for the first time, reaching approximately $5.3 billion compared with $5.1 billion, per 1kx.
In 1kx’s framework, broader economic activity includes tokenized assets, payments, and prediction markets—areas where blockchain functionality is being packaged for use in finance and consumer services rather than purely for network operations. That segment grew 58% year over year in the first half of 2026 and, together with institutional adoption, accounted for 33% of total blockchain revenue in Q3.
Looking ahead, 1kx projects that this combined share will reach 30% for the full year, underscoring that the market’s center of gravity is shifting even as the overall industry is expected to contract.
Support for that shift also appears in tokenization metrics outside of 1kx’s company revenue sample. Data from RWA.xyz shows the value of distributed tokenized real-world assets rose roughly 51% over the past year—from $26.16 billion in October 2025 to $39.54 billion as of Thursday. Tokenized equities grew even faster, surging 471% over the same period to $3.77 billion.
The implication for investors and builders is straightforward: even if total blockchain revenue faces headwinds, segments connected to real-world assets and structured financial use cases are expanding their share. That matters because it suggests demand for blockchain-enabled financial products is broadening beyond networks and infrastructure providers into asset classes that more directly resemble existing capital markets.
It also highlights a tension that the report’s numbers make visible. A shrinking top-line for “blockchain revenue” does not necessarily mean diminishing relevance of all blockchain applications. Instead, the industry may be reallocating spend toward tokenization, payments, and prediction-related activity—areas that can attract institutional involvement and generate revenue through mainstream financial rails.
With public companies already accounting for 16% of blockchain revenue in 2026 and broader economic activity gaining ground, the key question for the rest of the year is how stable these shares remain as the market adjusts to a projected decline in total revenue. Investors and market participants should watch whether tokenized assets and other non-infrastructure categories continue to expand fast enough to offset weakening infrastructure demand, and whether concentration among the largest public firms persists or starts to broaden.
This article was originally published as Public Firms’ Blockchain Revenue Share Doubles Since 2022: Report on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.
