727 FinanceFrom competing for underlying pricing power to competing for user entry points, here is a review of 20 crypto trading frontends—who is quietly making money, and why this business is becoming increasingly popular.
Author: Changan I Biteye Content Team
Over the past few years, Crypto entrepreneurs have raced to build public blockchains and protocols, hoping to control the underlying technology and capture fees. Whoever could attract more capital and transactions had a better chance of making money from them.
But as the underlying infrastructure has matured, another kind of business has started to emerge: instead of developing a full trading system in-house, players plug directly into existing protocols and focus their energy on product experience and competing for users.
What is more interesting is that some of these seemingly unremarkable trading frontends can make tens of millions of dollars a month, even surpassing many platforms that operate their own trading systems. Wallets, trading terminals, and social apps have also joined in, all competing for the same pool of trading users.
From fighting for pricing power to fighting for users and trading flow, why has Crypto's business started to change in this way? And who can make the most money from it?
I. Which Crypto frontend sectors are the most profitable?
Using access to third-party trading infrastructure and revenue of at least $100,000 over the past 30 days as the main screening criteria, we compiled 20 representative Crypto trading frontends.
By distribution, Meme-related products are the most numerous, with 7, represented by GMGN and Axiom. Several years on, Meme remains one of Crypto's hottest trading sectors. Coin prices rise and fall and narratives rotate constantly, but trading terminals selling shovels can keep making money from trading.
Next is the Perp DEX category, with 5 in total. Contract trading itself has a huge market size, and traders tend to open and close positions frequently, generating continuous fee income. As platforms such as Hyperliquid open up their trading capabilities, third-party frontends can also take a share of this large market.
Prediction markets are the fewest, with only 2. Third-party frontends in this sector are still competing for users, and many products compete through zero surcharges or low fees. Although trading volume is not small, the revenue that actually sticks is limited, so under our revenue screening criteria they account for the lowest share.
The other 6 are comprehensive entry points. Wallets such as Phantom, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet already control large numbers of users and assets. By integrating trading features such as Swap and Perps, they can turn existing traffic into new fee income. Fomo, meanwhile, represents the new social trading route, attempting to drive trading through content and social relationships.
Statistics as of October 21, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
II. Making $1 million a month, what makes these six frontends tick?
We have looked at the distribution across different sectors. Next, we pick out the 6 leading frontends with revenue of more than $1 million over the past 30 days. Although all of them rely on other protocols to complete trades, the ways they attract users and earn revenue are not the same.
Fomo focuses on Social Trading, attracting users through social content and creators, and then earning revenue from trading
Axiom and GMGN are established trading terminals deeply rooted in the Meme sector, having accumulated large numbers of professional traders and earning fees from high-frequency trading
Phantom, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet are wallets with massive user bases, converting existing users into new revenue sources by integrating more trading services.
Statistics as of October 21, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
1️⃣Fomo @fomo｜XHunt ranking: 729
Fomo is a social trading app aimed at ordinary users, and its biggest feature is lowering the barrier to on-chain trading. Users do not need to understand different public blockchains, wallets, and Gas fees; they only need to deposit USDC to directly buy and sell assets on different chains.
Beyond the trading experience, Fomo also integrates social features into the product. Users can follow other people's trading activity and directly copy their buys and sells.
More interestingly, it also changes the way Crypto creators make money: in the past, KOLs mainly monetized through advertising and project promotions. Now, by calling trades through Fomo, they can also earn a share of the fees generated by followers' trades.
Fomo not only makes it easier for newcomers to trade, but also gives creators a new channel to turn influence directly into trading income.
DefiLlama｜Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
2️⃣Axiom @AxiomExchange｜XHunt ranking: 3173
Axiom is a leading Meme trading terminal in the Solana ecosystem, having accumulated a large number of active traders through features such as fast order placement and trending token discovery.
But as competition in the Meme trading market intensifies, especially with the rise of a new generation of social trading platforms such as Fomo, Axiom has also begun looking for new growth space.
In the past two to three months, Axiom's expansion has clearly accelerated. In August it launched a new asset management page, in September it upgraded BNB Chain trading functionality, and it has also gradually expanded into ecosystems such as Base and Ink, no longer doing business only around Solana.
Axiom is clearly no longer satisfied with being just a Meme trading tool. It hopes to integrate market viewing, social features, and trading, gradually moving closer to a Super App.
DefiLlama｜Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
3️⃣GMGN @gmgnai｜XHunt ranking: 2030
GMGN is one of the Meme trading platforms most familiar to the Chinese-language Crypto community, having accumulated many loyal users through features such as a Chinese-friendly interface and smart money tracking.
However, with the rise of social trading platforms, GMGN has also begun to change. Recently it not only launched perpetual contracts, but also rolled out social features such as Callout and trading leaderboards, and even integrated Fomo users' callout records into K-lines.
Recently, founder Haze has also frequently posted hiring information to expand the product and community teams. Moving from a Meme trading tool to a comprehensive trading platform, GMGN clearly does not want to cling only to its past business.
DefiLlama｜Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
4️⃣Phantom @phantom｜XHunt ranking: 174
Phantom is a dark-horse wallet that emerged from the Solana ecosystem. With its simple and easy-to-use experience, it once reached nearly 17 million monthly active users and completed financing in 2025 at a $3 billion valuation.
Over the past year, it has gradually added Hyperliquid contracts, prediction markets, social feeds, and even launched a payment card, attempting to let users complete trading, socializing, and daily spending within a single app.
According to DefiLlama data, Phantom's revenue over the past 30 days exceeded $7 million, most of which still came from in-wallet token swaps and cross-chain business, while contract trading contributed about $1.2 million.
DefiLlama｜Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
5️⃣MetaMask @MetaMask｜XHunt ranking: 117
MetaMask is one of the oldest wallets in the Ethereum ecosystem and was once almost an essential tool for entering on-chain. But over the years, limited improvements to the product experience have gradually led many users to switch to other wallets.
Facing competition, MetaMask has also begun to accelerate its transformation, successively integrating Hyperliquid contracts and the Polymarket prediction market, attempting to evolve from a wallet tool into a comprehensive trading platform.
According to DefiLlama data, MetaMask's revenue over the past 30 days was about $3.72 million, of which traditional wallet transactions still contributed about $2.23 million, while Hyperliquid contracts contributed about $1.29 million.
Interestingly, MetaMask used to make money from the wallet's first-mover advantage, but now it too has to compete again for users' trading needs.
DefiLlama｜Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
6️⃣Trust Wallet @TrustWallet｜XHunt ranking: 1338
A wallet that supports multiple cryptocurrencies and, in addition to storing assets, can also directly buy and sell tokens, make cross-chain transfers, and trade contracts.Recently, Trust Wallet required 21 business leaders to open X accounts and communicate directly with users, which shows that the team is increasing its investment in user growth and community operations.
At the same time, the way it makes money is also changing.
According to DefiLlama data, Trust Wallet's revenue over the past 30 days was about $1.93 million, of which $1.56 million came from Hyperliquid perpetual contract trading, accounting for more than 80%, while traditional wallet businesses such as Swap and cross-chain contributed only about $370,000.
For Trust Wallet, in the past, wallets mainly made money from users depositing and swapping coins; now contract trading has become the main source of revenue.
DefiLlama | Statistics as of October 22, 2026 (Revenue 30d)
III. Why has the front end become a battleground when no one is building the underlying layer?
Fun fact: Phantom earns more trading revenue through Hyperliquid than TradeXYZ.
Fomo can be said to be the culmination of this round of front-end innovation. It integrates cross-chain trading, social feeds, and creator revenue sharing, allowing KOLs to earn fees by calling trades. This trend has also attracted new players such as SmartX, and established terminals such as GMGN and Axiom have also added social features.
What trading front ends are competing for is not just the fee from a single transaction, but all of users' future trading needs.
A trading entry point can support many businesses. Today it attracts users through Meme, and tomorrow it can connect contracts, prediction markets, and even payments and wealth management. Each additional business creates an opportunity to generate new revenue from existing users.
A research report by Re7 Capital shows that the trading share of third-party front ends in the perpetual contract market has grown from less than 1% in early 2025 to about 20% in August this year.
This is also why wallets, trading terminals, and social platforms all want to compete for this entry point. Wallets control users' assets, trading terminals have accumulated trading habits, and social platforms have creators and fans. Their starting points are different, but they all want users to complete more transactions within their products.
IV. Final thoughts
Over the past few years, Crypto has spent a lot of time building infrastructure to make trading faster and cheaper. But for most ordinary people, complex operations such as wallets, cross-chain, and Gas fees are still a threshold for entering Crypto.
Now, trading front ends are trying to change this situation. They leave complex operations in the background, allowing users to complete transactions as they would with an ordinary App. Fomo's rapid growth also shows us the user demand behind this simple experience.
In a report this year, Binance Research proposed that wallets, trading platforms, and fintech applications are gradually converging toward the same kind of product: one account and one balance can complete more and more financial operations.
This also means that in the future, front ends may compete not only for Crypto trading users. As services such as U.S. stocks, prediction markets, and payments gradually move on-chain, they have the opportunity to become a unified entry point for ordinary people to manage assets, invest, and consume.
In the past, Crypto has been working hard to bring more assets and financial services on-chain. In the next stage, what is truly worth watching may be who can make it easy for more ordinary people to use these services.
And today's seemingly ordinary trading front ends may very well be the starting point of this change.