2025 Layer 1 Token "Escape Wave": Users Flee En Masse, but Revenue is Consumed by Stablecoins

Developers haven’t stopped working, but tokens have become worthless — this is the harshest reality facing Layer 1 in 2025.

According to the year-end analysis report by OAK Research, mainstream L1 and L2 tokens experienced a systemic collapse in 2025. Bitcoin(BTC) remained relatively stable around $90.41K, but alternative L1 tokens plummeted, exposing deep flaws in economic models and market positioning. What’s even more painful is that developers are still heads down coding, but capital has long moved elsewhere.

Users are voting, and their ballots are brutal

The most straightforward data is: the monthly active users(MAU) of mainstream chains collectively declined by 25.15%.

But this average masks a seismic restructuring. Solana(SOL), currently priced at $139.14, lost nearly 94 million users in this purge, a drop of over 60%. In stark contrast, BNB Chain’s user base nearly tripled, now priced at $899.60.

This is not a technical issue; it’s the market voting ruthlessly: a large number of users fleeing underperforming L1s, while a few winners siphon users. The L2 track is also polarized. Base, leveraging Coinbase’s distribution network, broke out with record TVL; meanwhile, old players like Optimism(OP $0.31) and Arbitrum(ARB $0.20) are bleeding, and after the capital tide recedes, everyone is left bare.

Revenue has been monopolized

This year, the story of network revenue has become increasingly simple and brutal. Stablecoin issuers(Tether and Circle), along with derivatives trading platforms, monopolize the vast majority of protocol income. General infrastructure tokens? Sorry, not your share.

Protocols without clear revenue models face unprecedented pressure. The market has evolved from the era of “as long as there’s a concept, it will be hyped” to “prove you can make money.” Developers are still steadfast on EVM, Bitcoin, and SVM stacks; code submissions haven’t declined. But this is also the most ironic part: the strongest two-year developer growth appears in the Bitcoin ecosystem, followed by Solana and SVM stacks, with construction never stopping — yet token prices remain indifferent.

Why are tokens so cheap? Three reasons

First, the release schedule is terrifying. A large amount of inflationary L1 and L2 tokens are still continuously dumping, with veteran investors eager to cash out, causing the market to be hammered.

Second, the value capture mechanism is flawed. Holding tokens neither yields real income nor governance power, turning tokens into pure speculative assets.

Third, institutions collectively look down on small tokens. Big funds are clinging to Bitcoin and Ethereum, ignoring other L1s, reaching the extreme of the Matthew Effect.

Different paths, different fates

Polygon and Mantle are also declining, but Mantle, due to highly centralized supply chain control, has experienced slight growth. zkSync Era, on the other hand, has performed poorly. This reveals a harsh truth: general-purpose chains without differentiated competitive advantages simply cannot survive.

To survive in 2026, L1s must make significant breakthroughs in speed, cost, or security; otherwise, they will be “me-too” networks, eventually phased out by the market. Although regulatory trends are gradually becoming clearer, they won’t change the overall direction — infrastructure tokens will continue to face pressure unless they can prove they have irreplaceable value.

The entire industry is undergoing a brutal survival-of-the-fittest screening. Protocols with real revenue streams might barely survive, but they will also face investor unlocks and market volatility. For most general-purpose L1s, 2026 will be a turning point: either find a true competitive moat or be abandoned by the market.