Bitcoin has become the core asset of the crypto market, while many altcoins have limped along for years without a real investment thesis, The Motley Fool's Alex Carchidi wrote Sunday. His yardstick is fee revenue, since users generally pay a blockchain's fees only when they need the network to do something.

Bitcoin, with a market cap of about $1.65 trillion, collected $7.3 million in fees in the 30 days ended Oct. 14, according to CoinGecko and DeFiLlama data cited in the piece. Its main job is to be a scarce asset with no issuer, and so far that has kept attracting buyers, Carchidi wrote.

As Bitcoin Matures, Altcoins Face a Reckoning

Fee data shows the divide

Ethereum took in $18.1 million in fees over the same period on a $299.1 billion market cap. Solana brought in $27.8 million on a $61.9 billion valuation. XRP produced just $34,286 despite an $84.4 billion market cap.

Further down the list, Cardano collected $133,782 on an $8.6 billion market cap, Dogecoin $23,162 on $12.9 billion and Shiba Inu $13. Collecting fees is only half the picture. Carchidi also looked at where the money goes, and most of these altcoins don't use their fees in a way that benefits holders.