CoW Protocol batches trades and auctions them between public and private liquidity sources. It aims to achieve better prices than other exchanges by matching trades via Coincidences of Wants (CoWs) and protecting from MEV.

CoW Protocol is a meta-DEX aggregation protocol that acts as a batch settlement layer on top of all other AMMs & DEX aggregators. CoW Protocol is a spin off from Gnosis DAO that launched in February 2021.

COW tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total trading fees paid by traders (revenue).

governance

github

twitter

discord

etherscan

website

DEX aggregators

CoW Protocol

# CoW Protocol Average revenue per user (ARPU) Methodology

## 1. Overview

Average revenue per user (ARPU) measures the daily revenue generated per unique trader on CoW Protocol. This metric reflects the protocol's ability to monetize its user base through various value-capture mechanisms, including trade fees, MEV blocker fees, and RPC rebates. By dividing total daily revenue by the number of active users (daily), an assessment of the economic value contributed by an individual user within a 24-hour window is provided.

## 2. Data sources

- **Revenue**: Derived from the Revenue metric
- **Active users (daily)**: Derived from the Active users (daily) metric
- **Blockchain events**: `Trade` events from `GPv2Settlement` contracts and `bill` function calls from `MevBlockerFeeTill` contracts, plus native asset transfers from distributor and solver addresses, covering Ethereum, Gnosis, Arbitrum, Base, and 5 other chains
- **External data**: End-of-day price feeds and asset metadata

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Active user identification

- **Purpose**: Identify the number of unique traders interacting with the protocol daily.
- **Logic**: Unique trader addresses are extracted from `Trade` events emitted by `GPv2Settlement` contracts across all supported chains. These addresses are deduplicated on a daily basis to calculate the total count of active users (daily).
- **Key fields**: `user_address` (trader identification), `block_timestamp` (timing).

### Component B: Revenue aggregation

- **Purpose**: Calculate the total protocol revenue from all captured streams.
- **Logic**: Revenue is aggregated from five primary sources. First, the protocol's share of trade fees is extracted from trade data using a basis point heuristic, where non-volume fees and standard volume fees (0.3 bps or 2 bps) are included. Second, the CoW DAO share of partner fee distributions is identified from weekly native asset transfers from distributor contracts. Third, RPC rebates are captured as native asset inflows to designated solver addresses on Ethereum. Fourth, MEV blocker fees are parsed from `bill` function calls on Ethereum (for fees accrued prior to November 2025). Fifth, one-off MEV sales are included. All collected amounts are normalized by decimal precision and converted to USD using end-of-day price feeds.
- **Key fields**: `fee_amount`, `amount`, `token_address`, `block_timestamp`.

### Component C: ARPU calculation

- **Purpose**: Determine the average revenue generated per user.
- **Logic**: The total daily revenue in USD is divided by the daily count of unique active users. The calculation is performed at a daily granularity using UTC day boundaries. If no activity is recorded for a specific day, the value is set to zero.
- **Key fields**: `revenue` (USD), `user_dau` (count).

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

CoW ProtocolCOW

Average revenue per user (ARPU)

Average revenue per user (ARPU)

Competitive landscape