Crypto equities gained 23% while crypto tokens fell 36% this year – Is value shifting?
Bitwise reported a major split in 2026: publicly traded crypto companies rose 23% in the first half while crypto assets fell 36%, a 59-point gap. That may reflect either expectations of a token recovery or the fact that many crypto businesses now earn revenue from fees, yield, lending, data centers, and services even when tokens lag. Stablecoins are the clearest example: the market is about $310 billion, and issuers like Tether and Circle generate large reserve income that does not depend on token price appreciation. Coinbase, Robinhood, and others have also shown growing revenue from derivatives, prediction markets, and non-crypto activity. Some networks do capture usage value more directly through burns or buybacks, but many do not. Recent gains in prediction markets, tokenized assets, and crypto indexes suggest activity is expanding even as major tokens stay weak. The central question is whether token holders benefit from that growth or whether value is increasingly captured by equities instead.
