Pantera Capital presents a comprehensive survey on compensation within the global Web3 and crypto ecosystem. This report covers everything from bonuses to token incentives, offering valuable insights for professionals across various sectors. Below is an overview of the key findings and trends.
Summary
Web3 is a rapidly evolving industry with continuously emerging skill sets and job functions. Talent has become one of the biggest bottlenecks to growth in this space. At Pantera, we believe that greater transparency can help attract new talent into the ecosystem, driving the technological innovation we expect to revolutionize financial markets and empower individuals economically worldwide.
Nine months ago, Pantera successfully launched its first compensation survey. Our goal with these studies is to create more salary transparency within the crypto ecosystem. For our second survey, we set an ambitious target: to build the industry’s largest repository of crypto compensation data. With over 1,600 respondents, we believe we have achieved this goal. After thorough analysis, we are pleased to share our findings.
In addition to making the survey open to all, we rewarded all participants with full access to the anonymized 2023 dataset.
Methodology Overview
Our survey includes data from over 25 geographically distributed startups, as well as information from hundreds of participants across the crypto community, covering a wide range of professions. The data reflects companies from early-stage to late-stage, spanning half a dozen sectors including DeFi, CeFi, gaming, and more.
For this report, "executive" refers to C-Suite leaders and founders, "engineering" includes anyone in technical roles, and "operations" serves as a catch-all term covering customer service, fraud prevention, strategy, and more.
The Pantera team took every effort to anonymize the dataset. In some cases, we had to exclude significant outliers, incorrectly formatted submissions, and specific information that could identify particular projects. Data was standardized based on factors such as experience level, geographic location, company industry, and function.
Where appropriate, we combined data with our previous survey from December 2022 to provide a more comprehensive analysis. Unless otherwise stated, all compensation data is presented in median U.S. dollar values.
Key Findings
- Limited crypto salary adoption: 97% of respondents receive their base salary in fiat currency, while only 3% are paid in cryptocurrency, with USDC being the most popular choice.
- Prevalence of remote work: An overwhelming 88% of respondents work remotely, underscoring the global distribution of the crypto workforce.
- Web2 vs. Web3 engineer pay: Senior crypto engineers in North America earn slightly more than their Web2 counterparts, with an average salary of $193,000.
- Token compensation packages: One in five respondents reported receiving an initial token allocation from their employer. The global median initial token allocation for non-executive roles is $89,000, while for executives (C-Suite and founders), the global median token package reaches $1.3 million.
- Executive compensation: For seed-stage executives, the average salary is $147,000, while for Series A, it rises to $206,000.
Respondent Demographics
Our dataset includes over 1,600 responses, with 99% of respondents being professionals within the crypto community. This year, we saw a 55% increase in response rates compared to 2022—we extend our gratitude to all who participated.
Survey Breakdown by Function
Professional functions represented include engineering, operations, marketing, design, business development, product management, executive leadership, finance and accounting, legal, and more.
Breakdown by Sector
These professionals work across various sectors, which we have simplified into DeFi, CeFi, infrastructure, consumer, NFT, gaming, and venture capital. The majority of respondents come from DeFi and CeFi, which together account for nearly 70% of our dataset.
Company Stage
Responding companies vary in size, from teams with fewer than five employees to those with hundreds, spanning from seed stage to growth stage.
Global Reach
In terms of geographic diversity, we collected data from 77 unique countries. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil are among the top five countries where participants reside.
We also categorized respondents by geographic region: Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America (LATAM), and North America. The majority of respondents are from North America, so we will primarily focus on this region for our analysis.
Gender and Age
Among respondents who disclosed their gender, 85% are male, 12% are female, 2% preferred not to disclose, and 1% identify as transgender. We believe this clearly indicates that the ecosystem needs greater diversity, and that elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) should become more routine initiatives in the field.
Employee Compensation Systems
In our survey, we found that 97% of people receive their base salary in fiat currency, while only 3% are paid in cryptocurrency. Among those paid in crypto, USDC is clearly the preferred token, accounting for 56% of cryptocurrency salary payments, followed by USDT at 25% and BTC at 13%. Initially, we attributed the low adoption of crypto salaries to market conditions and a lack of payroll providers offering this functionality.
We reached out to Deel, a provider we have collaborated with in the past, for their perspective. Here is their response:
"Given the state of the crypto market, global workforce interest in being paid in cryptocurrency has waned. The overall withdrawal rate at the end of 2022 was 4%, down from 5% at the beginning of the year. As of 2023, the breakdown of cryptocurrency withdrawals (as a percentage of total withdrawals on Deel) is: 45% BTC, 26% USDC, 18% ETH, 9% SOL, and 2% other.
Compare this to 2022: 61% BTC, 29% USDC, 6% ETH, 2% SOL, and 2% DASH."
Based on this data, we continue to see a decline in the number of people accepting cryptocurrency salaries. We anticipate this number will increase during the next bull market. It is worth noting that while Deel observed decreases in BTC, USDC, and SOL, they saw ETH's share grow more than threefold in payroll distributions, particularly indicating a bullish public sentiment toward ETH. (This should not be interpreted as investment advice.)
Deel's COO provided additional context:
"As a compensation benefit, cryptocurrency can serve as a growth investment for some workers and provide more reliable, stable pay for others. This year, we have seen more clients in countries with unstable currencies, such as Turkey and Argentina, adopt crypto salaries to counter annual inflation rates reaching double digits. In countries with more stable currencies, interest in cryptocurrency has cooled as prices for most major coins fell.
"Looking ahead, if investor confidence improves and coin prices rise, we expect to see an increase in crypto withdrawals. In countries where workers are already accustomed to cryptocurrency withdrawals as a stable salary, we anticipate similar trends."
Work Styles in the Crypto World
Amid increasing calls for employees to return to the office in the tech sector, we found it significant (though not surprising) that 88% of crypto professionals work remotely. This contrasts sharply with Web2 data: in 2022, only 28% of the 29,000 job offers received by Levels.fyi were for remote-first roles (primarily Web2 data). This highlights the distributed and globally diverse nature of the crypto community.
Given this global distribution, we do not expect the crypto sector to push for a return to the office.
Compensation Analysis
Engineering Roles
Among the 570 engineers surveyed, the global median base salary in 2023 was $120,000, with an average of $128,000. Engineers in North America command the highest median salary, followed by those in EMEA, LATAM, and APAC.
We compared our sample of crypto engineers with data from Carta (primarily Web2) and found the following:
In North America (including the U.S. and Canada), the median salary for a senior crypto engineer in 2023 was slightly above $193,000. This reflects a modest increase from the previous year, when the median was $190,000. According to comparable data from Carta Total Comp, a senior engineer at a company backed by $10–25 million can expect a salary of $187,000; this means senior engineers in Web3 earn slightly more than their Web2 counterparts.
However, the bear market has been challenging for early and mid-career engineers. Our survey results indicate that engineers with 1–3 years of experience saw an 8% decrease in salary between 2022 and 2023. Similarly, those in mid-career roles experienced a slight decline of nearly 4%.
When shifting our focus to the United States, where a top software engineer can earn up to $400,000 annually, we found that the average salary for a software engineer (SWE) in our survey was $170,000.
Executive Roles (Founders and C-Suite)
We first examined executive compensation (founders and C-Suite) in the United States. Due to limited data for executives at each stage (in some cases, fewer than 20 respondents), we present the below figures as averages. The table on the right illustrates executive compensation across company stages.
For executives at the seed stage, the average compensation is $147,000, while at Series A, we observed an average of $206,000. For Series B and beyond, average compensation rises significantly to $297,000. However, it is important to note that the sample size for Series B and later executives is relatively small.
Focusing on late-stage executive compensation, leaders at companies in Series C and above earn an average of $335,000. These figures align with the 60th percentile range suggested for executives at companies that have raised $20 million or more. Additionally, they closely match the ranges recommended by platforms like Carta Total Comp or Pave.
Marketing Roles
Within the crypto ecosystem, marketing professionals can expect a global median base salary of $100,000. Specifically in the United States, individuals in marketing roles can anticipate a median compensation of $135,000. We analyzed marketing salaries based on experience and company stage:
The highest reported salary in the marketing field was $280,000. For all projects wondering, "What is the appropriate salary for a community manager?" our research found a global median base salary of $65,000 for community managers. In the United States, the median base salary for community managers rises to $105,000.
Finance and Accounting Roles
The global median salary for finance and accounting professionals is $90,000, while in the United States, this figure increases to $154,000. The highest-paid professionals in this field earn up to $260,000 annually. In the U.S., compensation for finance and accounting professionals ranges from $120,000 to $205,000, depending on seniority.
Business Development Roles
When examining business development professionals, it's important to note that a significant portion of their compensation should be commission-based. Globally, we found a median salary of $115,000. In the United States, the average base salary is $140,000. The highest-paid business development professionals earn up to $275,000.
Product Management Roles
In our survey, the highest-paid product manager earns an annual salary of $350,000. Globally, the median salary for product managers is $125,000, while the United States reports a higher median of $170,000. In the U.S., product managers can expect to earn around $115,000 in early career stages and over $187,000 in later stages.
Operations Roles
The operations category includes roles ranging from customer support and KYC analysts to strategists, which explains the wide range in compensation. In the United States, the median base salary for operations professionals is $110,000. Meanwhile, the highest-paid professionals in this field earn $344,000. The average customer support role pays $63,000. We noted a significant jump in compensation from mid-level to senior career levels, which is reasonable when considering positions like operations director or strategy director.
Legal Roles
In the United States, 2022 and 2023 proved to be turbulent, especially in regulatory matters. This turbulence prompted companies to ramp up hiring of legal leaders, warranting closer scrutiny. In the U.S., the median base salary for senior legal professionals (General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, etc.) is $225,000, with the highest-paid regulatory leader in our survey earning $370,000. The average legal hire at Series A stage earns $210,000, jumping to $250,000 at Series B.
Incentive Structures
Bonuses
More than half of the respondents represent late-stage companies (Series B and beyond), with 79% indicating they are eligible for bonuses. Among seed-stage respondents, 15% claim bonus eligibility, while at Series A, 32% say they can receive an annual bonus. At Series B and later, 72% of our respondents report receiving bonuses.
In the United States, the median bonus amount is $15,000.
Token Incentives
We found token incentives in 2023 particularly interesting. In our survey, one in five respondents reported receiving an initial token allocation from their employer. Delving deeper, the global median initial token allocation for non-executive roles is $89,000. In stark contrast, the global median token package for executives (C-Suite and founders) reaches a substantial $1.3 million. It is important to note that this figure is influenced by vesting schedules and may be misleading without understanding corresponding valuations and timelines.
We break down token incentives for the entire dataset as follows:
Regarding token vesting, a 4-year schedule is the most common. 64.3% of respondents reported a 4-year vesting period, 24.6% opted for 3 years, 3.6% for 2 years, 1.8% for 1 year, and 5.8% claimed "other."
This is another area where we expect change. We predict an increase in companies supporting 2-year and especially 3-year vesting schedules over the next year and look forward to testing this theory in our next survey. We believe token grants will continue to exist as a unique form of incentive and are excited to see how they evolve.
We have observed numerous philosophical approaches pushing the boundaries of employee compensation. Most notably, DESO's memoryless approach. Nader, founder of DESO, shared his compensation philosophy:
"What we do in my organization is offer a pure cash offer but then add the option for monthly payments where they are free to choose how much of their payment to convert into DESO, offered at a 10% discount to market price but with a 2-year vesting schedule."
This effectively gives employees the flexibility to adjust their compensation package based on how much ownership they want at any given moment. This philosophy, pioneered by DESO, is very similar to Shopify's Flex Comp Model. These "self-selected compensation models" cater to candidates across the spectrum, and we expect to see more such models in the future. This isn't something we would recommend to everyone, but it is a must-read when considering your own compensation philosophy.
👉 Explore more strategies on crypto compensation
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of crypto professionals are paid in cryptocurrency?
Only 3% of respondents receive their base salary in cryptocurrency, with the majority (97%) paid in fiat currency. USDC is the most popular choice for crypto payments, followed by USDT and BTC.
How does crypto engineer compensation compare to Web2?
Senior crypto engineers in North America earn a median salary of $193,000, slightly higher than their Web2 counterparts. However, early and mid-career engineers have seen declines in compensation due to market conditions.
What is the average token allocation for non-executive roles?
The global median initial token allocation for non-executive positions is $89,000. Executives, such as founders and C-Suite leaders, receive significantly higher packages, with a global median of $1.3 million.
Are bonuses common in crypto companies?
Bonuses are more prevalent in late-stage companies, with 79% of Series B+ respondents eligible for bonuses. In earlier stages, bonus eligibility is lower: 15% at seed stage and 32% at Series A.
How prevalent is remote work in the crypto industry?
Remote work is extremely common, with 88% of respondents working remotely. This highlights the global and distributed nature of the crypto workforce compared to traditional tech sectors.
What are the trends in legal compensation within crypto?
Legal professionals in the U.S. command high salaries, with senior roles earning a median of $225,000. Demand for legal expertise has increased due to regulatory developments, driving competitive compensation packages.
Conclusion
Our platform's mission is to support the success of our portfolio companies and the broader crypto ecosystem. In doing so, we identified a lack of adequate databases for compensation and salary data within our ecosystem. We hope this survey is the first step toward providing greater transparency in crypto compensation.
We believe in the power of "karma" within the blockchain industry. In keeping with this spirit, we will share our anonymized dataset with all participants. We are confident that by providing such data access, the industry will be able to make better hiring and compensation decisions, leading to greater success.
We will continue to release our compensation data every six months to participants. If you haven't participated, feel free to join in. Some of our portfolio companies are currently hiring. If you or your colleagues are interested in entering crypto, blockchain, Web3, DeFi, or other verticals we invest in, take a look at the open positions at our portfolio companies.