Inside the Layer 1 (L1) sector, 25 September 2026

Sector Composition and Concentration

As of 25 September 2026, the Layer 1 sector carried a combined market capitalisation of approximately $2.495 trillion across 115 tracked constituents. Concentration within the sector is pronounced: Bitcoin alone accounted for roughly $1.694 trillion of that total, representing approximately 67.9% of the sector figure on its own. Adding Ethereum ($327.96 billion) and BNB ($103.25 billion) brings the three largest members to approximately 85% of the sector aggregate. The remaining 112 constituents, including the twelve additional largest members listed, collectively represent a comparatively small residual. This degree of top-heaviness means sector-level figures are heavily influenced by the movements of a very small number of assets.

Fee Streams: Coverage and Gaps

Of the fifteen largest members for which data is supplied, fourteen carry a reported annualised fee figure derived from the trailing 30 days to 25 September 2026. Monero is the sole member among this group for which the fee field is recorded as null, meaning no measurable fee stream is captured in the dataset for that asset. Among those with fee data, the figures span an exceptionally wide range — from approximately $28 annualised for XRP to approximately $595 million annualised for Canton — underlining that the presence of a fee figure does not by itself imply comparability of scale or mechanism across members.

Distance from All-Time Highs

The spread of drawdowns from all-time highs across the fifteen largest members is wide as of 25 September 2026. Hyperliquid sits closest to its all-time high at -4.75%, while Cardano and Bitcoin Cash are furthest, at -91.85% and -91.13% respectively. The remaining members are distributed across a broad middle range, from approximately -21.5% (TRON) to -82.7% (Litecoin). These figures describe historical distance only; the dataset does not provide the dates at which those all-time highs were set, so the time elapsed since peak — a variable that materially affects interpretation — cannot be determined from this data alone.

What the Sector Label Does and Does Not Convey

The label Layer 1 denotes assets operating as base-layer blockchain networks, but it functions primarily as a structural descriptor rather than an analytical equivalence class. The fifteen largest members encompass networks with materially different consensus mechanisms, fee architectures, throughput designs, governance structures, and intended use cases. Some generate substantial annualised fees from transaction activity; at least one generates a negligible recorded fee. Some have been live for over a decade; others are comparatively recent. The sector grouping does not control for these differences, and aggregated sector figures — including total market capitalisation and average returns — blend assets whose economic and technical characteristics may have little in common beyond the base-layer label. Readers interpreting sector-level statistics should treat them as a population descriptor rather than evidence of underlying homogeneity.