CAKE Tops Grayscale's Adjusted Earnings Yield Ranking at 14.4%

Grayscale's Tokenholder Yield Ranking

Grayscale Research published a two-part yield screen for major crypto assets on October 22, and PancakeSwap (CAKE) appears on both of its lists. The first ranking orders the top 10 assets by tokenholder yield, a net figure the firm builds by adding staking rewards and buybacks and then subtracting newly issued tokens. When issuance outweighs those benefits, holders face dilution even while the protocol's economic activity keeps growing. Hyperliquid (HYPE) leads that list at 8.0% and Lighter (LIT) follows at 7.9%, while PancakeSwap (CAKE) comes third at 2.6%, ahead of Aerodrome (AERO) and Uniswap (UNI). Raydium (RAY), Pendle, Aave, Jupiter (JUP) and Curve Finance (CRV) complete the top 10. The finding that matters most sits in the negative column: five of the ten tokens return less to holders than they issue, with Curve worst at -5.5% and Jupiter at -2.6%. The measure is deliberately narrower than the gross APY that farming interfaces advertise, because it nets dilution against everything handed back through rewards and repurchases. Dilution is the quiet force behind those negatives: new tokens flow to teams, treasuries and incentive programs, and the supply overhang cancels the value returned through staking and repurchases. Research head Zach Pandl argues that Bitcoin resembles digital gold while many other crypto assets can be valued on cash flows, and the official Grayscale post states that crypto valuations need not depend on narratives alone. Bitcoin sits outside the exercise, which is precisely Pandl's point: only assets with cash flows can be screened this way. For an investor, the gap between revenue and distribution is the number to watch.

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PancakeSwap Leads on Earnings Yield

The second list is the one that puts PancakeSwap (CAKE) on top. Grayscale ranks the top 10 assets by adjusted earnings yield, an equity-style measure that asks how much of a protocol's fee earnings stands behind each token's market value. In stock terms it is the inverse of a price-to-earnings multiple: a higher figure means the market pays less for each unit of fee earnings. PancakeSwap leads that screen at 14.4%, with Lighter close behind at 14.1% and HYPE third at 9.8%. The rest of the order runs Raydium (RAY), Aave, Jupiter (JUP), Sky, Uniswap (UNI), Aerodrome (AERO) and Pendle, a list spread across altcoins from decentralized exchanges to lending markets. PancakeSwap's earnings come from the spot trading fees its automated market maker model collects on every swap, revenue that shows up on the earnings side of the screen. The table's sharpest contrast sits with Jupiter: an adjusted earnings yield of 3.5% against a negative tokenholder yield of -2.6%, the clearest example of a profitable protocol whose token still fails to reward its holders. Buybacks and burns can transfer earnings to holders, the report notes, but token issuance may offset the gain. HYPE appears on both lists, first on distribution and third on earnings, making it the only asset near the top of each. A token can therefore look expensive on distribution and cheap on earnings at the same time, exactly the gap the screen is built to measure. For readers who want the underlying mechanics, our Blockchain Revenue and Profit guide sets out how networks convert fees into earnings.

Read together, the two screens give PancakeSwap (CAKE) a specific profile. Its 14.4% adjusted earnings yield is the highest in the sample, yet its tokenholder yield of 2.6% stays modest, which tells us buybacks at PancakeSwap only partly offset issuance and the token captures less than its protocol earns. Jupiter is the cautionary case on the same table: revenue without distribution leaves holders diluted. CAKE's price slipped 3.4% over the past 24 hours, a move our CAKE technical analysis page puts in context, and the fee-switch debate visible in The Flip fee vote is a live test of whether those earnings finally reach holders.