Ethereum Devs Are Underpaid by Over 50%: Shocking New Report Reveals

Ethereum's brightest minds are getting shortchanged—big time. A bombshell report just dropped showing developers building the world's second-largest blockchain are earning less than half what they should.

The Talent Drain Nobody's Talking About

While ETH prices flirt with all-time highs and DeFi protocols rake in fees, the engineers powering this revolution are being paid like interns. Over 50% under market rate? That's not a gap—that's a canyon.

Finance folks will tell you it's all about 'market efficiency' while collecting seven-figure bonuses for moving decimal points. Meanwhile, the actual builders creating trillion-dollar ecosystems can't afford Bay Area rent.

This isn't sustainable. Either Ethereum fixes its compensation crisis—or watch its best talent flee to chains that actually value innovation over financialization.

Compensation Gap

Median salaries for surveyed ethereum developers came in at about $140,000, compared with offers averaging $300,000 at rival projects. The report also detailed pay by area of focus, with average salaries at $130,000 for client developers, $215,000 for researchers, and $130,000 for coordination roles.

Additionally, these contributors said that they don’t get any equity or token exposure from their employers. The general allocation was $0, with only 37% of respondents receiving anything. On the other hand, final-stage offers made to their peers at rival organizations in the past year included a median equity or token share of 6.5%. This ranges from cofounder-level allocations of 10% to 30% to early employee grants of 0.1% to 3%.

The gap has created pressure; almost 40% of respondents have received outside job offers in the past year. In total, 108 were disclosed across 42 individuals, with the average package reaching $359,000. Some developers said they had been offered as much as $700,000 to MOVE elsewhere.

Closing the Pay Disparity

Established in 2022, Protocol Guild has become a lifeline for such developers. Backed by the “1% Pledge” from projects including EigenLayer, Ether.fi, Taiko, and Puffer, the group has distributed over $33 million since launch. VanEck also pledged 10% of profits from its spot Ether ETF to the initiative in 2023.

Over the last 12 months, the average Guild member received $66,000 through this funding, while the median distribution was $74,285. That support represented nearly one-third of total annual compensation for many employees, with the mean pay rising from $140,000 to $207,121.

Survey responses show how important this extra support has been, with 59% of participants rating Guild funding as “very” or “extremely important” to their ability to keep working on Ethereum.

The network has secured nearly $1 trillion in value, serves millions of users, and powers thousands of applications reliant on key upgrades. Protocol Guild warned that inadequate compensation puts Ethereum at risk by undermining developer retention, slowing progress on the roadmap, and threatening long-term neutrality.

The group also emphasized that aligning pay with market rates is important to keep talent in place and ensure the ecosystem’s future growth.