Ethereum Core Developers Paid Well Under Market Levels Despite Running the Network: Report

Ethereum core developers are earning far below market standards even as they carry the responsibility of keeping the world’s second-largest blockchain secure and functional a report ￰0￱ Guild a collective that funds around 190 Ethereum core contributors released compensation data this week

revealing that salaries for these developers sit 50% to 60% below what they could earn ￰1￱ survey drew responses from 111 members across 11 organizations making it the most comprehensive snapshot of pay in Ethereum’s core ecosystem to ￰2￱ 37% Of Contributors Receive Tokens Or Equity Grants Median base pay landed at $140,000 while market offers hovered at $300,000 and averaged an eye-catching $359,000 laying bare the gulf in earnings. 1/ We are releasing the first-ever comp report for Ethereum core ￰3￱ striking takeaways: they pass up at least 50% of their market value to maintain existential industry software PG funding helps reduce this gap & retain talent long term ↓ Report & thread ↓ ￰4￱ — Protocol Guild (@ProtocolGuild) September 9

2025 One developer even reported turning down a jaw-dropping $700,000 package choosing instead to stick with Ethereum’s core work despite the steep pay ￰5￱ findings reflect a long-standing ￰6￱ commercial crypto ventures that can issue tokens or equity most client teams and research groups working on Ethereum core software cannot offer lucrative upside ￰7￱ 37% of contributors surveyed received any form of equity or token grants from their ￰8￱ the majority the answer was ￰9￱