The Great Crypto Pay Cut: Who’s Still Getting Paid in the Remote Era?

Crypto industry professionals are seeing shrinking pay packages even as founder salaries climb. At the same time, remote work is now the industry standard, according to a recent survey.

Data from Dragonfly revealed that while salary and token packages are tightening for most roles, new trends are reshaping crypto jobs in 2025.

Who’s Still Getting Paid Well in Crypto Companies?

Crypto compensation in 2024/2025 is contracting. According to Dragonfly’s latest report — based on a survey of 85 companies and more than 3,400 individuals — the average salary across crypto firms dropped 18% year-over-year to $144,000. Token grants were down 75%.

Despite this overall decline, founder compensation rose by 37%, reaching approximately $197,000. Furthermore, equity offers were slightly up.

Technical roles continued to command strong compensation, especially for senior ICs and engineering leaders. Still, product management executives posted the highest base salaries overall.

Geographically, pay gaps were narrowing. US roles still led overall in terms of cash compensation. However, international executives sometimes matched or exceeded US compensation, largely due to larger token and equity packages granted abroad.

“Equity shifted unevenly, especially with non-technical, non-executive roles. US saw shrinking ranges (compression), while international cases sometimes reached 2–10× US levels. Early-stage companies offered lower salaries and more equity (often 2×), while later-stage teams reversed the balance,” the report read.

Dragonfly’s 2024/2025 report found that companies are increasingly granting tokens separately from equity, reflecting a maturing approach to crypto compensation. In the survey data, 51% of teams treated tokens and equity as completely separate elements, up sharply from 45% in 2023. Only 22% maintained a proportional link between the two.

Technical Talent Dominates the Crypto Workforce

Notably, technical positions made up the majority of the team, reflecting the crypto industry’s enduring emphasis on engineering and product development. Engineering and crypto engineering roles together accounted for roughly 67% of total headcount, confirming that engineering remains king in Web3 hiring.

Non-technical functions were also underrepresented: marketing accounted for only 7% of teams, design 5%, and product 7%, mostly in senior or executive positions.

Lastly, entry-level positions remained relatively scarce. They accounted for just 10% of the total headcount.

“Entry-level hiring was scarce, constraining pipelines and diversity, and making it harder for new entrants to break into the industry (with product and marketing particularly tough). Executive hiring outside of engineering was limited,” Dragonfly revealed.

Crypto Job Hiring: Remote and Global

As crypto organizations scale, hiring trends are becoming more global and digitally native. Teams are expanding across borders while maintaining lean, technically focused workforces that rely on distributed operations and asynchronous collaboration.

Dragonfly revealed that remote work was the prevailing model across the crypto industry. The study found that 54% of crypto companies operated fully remotely, while 30% used hybrid setups. Another 14% described themselves as remote-first, leaving only 2% fully in-office.

The report noted that 94% of firms plan to maintain their current policies, highlighting how deeply remote work is embedded in the sector’s culture. US companies tend to be more remote-leaning, while international teams favor hybrid arrangements.

Thus, Dragonfly’s 2024/2025 Crypto Compensation Report paints a picture of a maturing but cautious industry. Salaries and token grants have tightened across most roles, but founders and senior technical leaders continue to capture significant rewards.

At the same time, the global shift toward remote-first operations and distributed talent is redefining how crypto companies build teams and compete for expertise. While the market cools on compensation, the data suggests that crypto’s long-term focus remains clear: reward technical excellence, sustain flexibility, and build globally.