Compensation in the crypto industry falls short in latest report

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Written on Mar 21, 2024

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Latest findings, from Dragonfly Research, shine a spotlight on the crypto industry itself and how it pays.
It looks specifically into compensation and payment methods for various roles, like software engineers.
The data shows that there is still some work to be done in terms of remunerating crypto industry employees.

While cryptocurrencies are a burgeoning sector, with billions invested in thousands of coins, data is hard to come by for the crypto industry itself and the people who run it.

For that reason, Dragonfly Capital, an investment firm dedicated solely to cryptocurrencies, have written the Dragonfly Crypto Compensation Report.

Purpose of the report

The report set out to determine how, and how much, various stakeholders in the crypto industry were paid. To do this, they analysed 49 crypto portfolio companies from around the world (with the majority in the United States) operating in 2023.

Zackary Skelly, a writer for Dragonfly Research, explained it this way:

We started by asking our founders exactly what they wanted to understand about compensation. From there, we spent considerable time from there designing an appropriate survey, and cleaning, analysing, and figuring out the most powerful way to present the data.”

Key findings from the report

The report found that crypto firms, particularly those outside of the US, have some way to go in terms of remunerating people.

Only 37% of the companies adjusted compensation for the cost of living – a crucial difference in the current inflation and interest rate-obsessed macro climate – while 63% said that they didn’t.

In terms of regions, United States companies paid better than other countries for the most part, including for roles like software engineers and crypto engineers.

On average, this translated to 13% higher salaries, and 30% higher equity and token packages. The exceptions were international companies’ product managers and product designers, who were more in line with the US figures.

Perhaps ironically, the study also found that the large majority of crypto employees are paid in fiat currency, as opposed to with cryptocurrencies.

Token adoption by the crypto firms themselves was also surprisingly low, with only 18% having a token that is already live, with another 37% saying that they would launch one in future. The remainder were either not sure whether they would launch a token or said that they wouldn’t.

Read the full Dragonfly cryptocurrency report here.