Grayscale Research has mentioned five decentralized finance tokens they believe hold real value, as crypto markets now reward revenue and cash flow over speculation.

The investment firm highlights Hyperliquid (HYPE), Aave (AAVE), Uniswap (UNI), Sky (SKY), and Maple (MAPLE) in a report from June 16. All show strong relative value based on fundamentals.

Why Grayscale sees value in DeFi

Crypto markets have been on a downturn since January. Grayscale states in their report that investors can now evaluate many tokens as financial assets rather than commodities.

The company categorizes tokens on a scale. Bitcoin trades like a commodity, while protocols with recurring revenue resemble cash flow companies.

Since 2023, DeFi protocols have earned nearly 25 billion USD in total fees from real users. That activity has led to increasing fee revenue on the blockchain across exchanges, lending, staking, and derivatives.

Price valuations within DeFi lending have also dropped. Grayscale interprets this as business models maturing and now trading at attractive valuations.

Revenue is now driving token value.

Just revenue isn't enough to determine token value. Grayscale says that burning, buybacks, discounts, and staking dictate how much actually goes to holders.

With that perspective, Uniswap and Hyperliquid stand out. The report states that both return nearly all revenue back to holders through transparent DeFi models for distribution.

Hyperliquid uses trading fees directly to buy and burn HYPE. That model helped HYPE reach the top 10 in market cap this year.

Aave stands by their side as the largest DeFi lender, after Grayscale called the AAVE token undervalued around 75 USD.

How tokens stand against each other.

HYPE is trading close to 72 USD, and sits as the tenth largest crypto, well ahead of competitors over the past year.

UNI is hovering around 3.30 USD after a 9% daily pump, where its value ties back to fees going back to holders.

SKY is trading around 0.06 USD, where Grayscale believes their collateral-backed stablecoin continues to find product-market fit.

Maple rounds out the list through institutional lending, which the company claims has delivered strong returns relative to risk.

“…crypto is now being reevaluated from narrative → fundamentals. Protocols with real revenue, disciplined capital use, and clear tokenomics perform best. Grayscale highlights HYPE, AAVE, UNI, SKY, and MAPLE as showing strong relative value in this way,” says Grayscale.

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The key is a market that's shifting from narrative to fundamentals.

Grayscale says protocols that convert real revenue into token value pull ahead of the rest.