Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
In early February 2025, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino published a document announcing the Tether 2024 Q4 Asset Proof, which mentioned: Tethers full-year profit in 2024 was as high as $13.7 billion; the quarterly profit in Q4 2024 was $6 billion. After the news came out, it triggered heated discussions in the market. As the current dominant force in the stablecoin market, many people know that Tethers ability to attract money is extremely strong, but the annual profit of nearly $14 billion is still staggering. At the same time, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, the Tether team has only 165 people, and the human efficiency ratio has reached an astonishing $83.03 million per person, even far exceeding the investment giant Goldman Sachs (the latter has about 45,000 employees and a full-year profit of about $14 billion in 2024). It has to be said that compared with traditional industries, the human efficiency ratios of leading companies in the cryptocurrency industry are extremely impressive.
In view of this, Odaily Planet Daily will briefly review a number of crypto money-making machines in this article for readers reference. (Note: Due to the high mobility of personnel in the crypto industry and different statistical calibers, the following data is only an incomplete statistics and is for reference only)
A review of the top 7 crypto money-making machines: Tether is well-deserved, and Coinbase is on the list
List of crypto money-making machines
1. Tether (USDT issuer): 13.7 billion in profits, team of less than 200 people
The worlds largest issuer of stablecoin USDT, which dominates the stablecoin market, supports the value of tokens by holding assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds, and has more than 400 million users.
2024 profit: $13.7 billion for the full year.
Number of employees: 165;
Labor efficiency ratio: approximately US$83.03 million per person.
2. pump.fun: Revenue exceeds $300 million in 2024
As the most eye-catching Meme coin launch platform in this cycle, Pump.fun is also one of the most profitable cryptocurrencies. According to on-chain analysts , pump.fun has earned about 1.703 million SOL from its launch to the end of 2024. Based on the average price of $198, the total profit is about $337 million.
In addition, Qiao, the founder of Alliance DAO, the investor behind pump.fun, previously revealed that the pump.fun team initially had only 3 people, and then gradually expanded to more than a dozen people. We calculated it based on the median of 15 people.
2024 profit: $337 million;
Number of employees: 15;
Labor efficiency ratio: US$22.4796 million per person.
3. Binance: 250 million users and over 5,000 employees
The worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange has more than 250 million users and total spot and derivatives trading volume has exceeded the $100 trillion mark.
Profit in 2024: Not directly disclosed. Previously, $4 billion of operating assets were sold based on accounting processes . Community sources believe that the net profit in 2024 will be approximately $6-7 billion. Here we take the middle value and calculate it at $5 billion.
Number of employees: Over 5,000 ( revealed in He Yi’s post ).
Labor efficiency ratio: US$1 million per person.
4. Coinbase: Full-year net profit of 2.6 billion, team of over 3,700 people
Founded in 2012, it is the leading cryptocurrency trading platform in the United States.
On April 14, 2021, Coinbase successfully landed on Nasdaq, becoming the worlds first listed cryptocurrency exchange. According to Coinbases Q4 2024 financial report , in the fourth quarter of last year, Coinbases revenue was US$954 million, achieving quarterly profits for the first time in two years. As of the end of 2024, Coinbase had 3,772 full-time employees, a year-on-year increase of 10%.
2024 profit : $2.6 billion;
Number of employees: 3,772;
Labor efficiency ratio: US$689,000 per person.
5. Circle (USDC issuer): Full-year profit unknown, total number of employees less than 1,000
As the issuer of USDC, the worlds second largest stablecoin, it focuses on compliance and institutional cooperation.
According to previous official news , the circulation volume of USDC in 2024 will exceed 45 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 78%. To date, more than 18 trillion US dollars of USDC transactions have been achieved; the number of users has exceeded 500 million.
Profit in 2024: Not disclosed directly yet. The monthly revenue in December 2024 was US$132.77 million. According to previous news, Circles full-year revenue in 2022 was US$150 million, and its EBITDA in the first half of 2023 was US$219 million. It is speculated that the profit in 2024 will be at least US$500 million.
Number of employees: According to Bloomberg in June 2024, the total number of employees is approximately 915.
Labor efficiency ratio: US$546,000 per person.
6. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy): Net profit less than 500 million, team size over 1,500 people
Earlier, according to The Block , Strategy (MicroStrategy) nearly doubled its Bitcoin holdings in Q4 2024, with quarterly operating expenses reaching US$1.103 billion, a year-on-year increase of 693%, a net loss of US$670.8 million, and total revenue of US$120.7 million, about US$3 million lower than general expectations and 3% lower than last year.
2024 profit: $464 million (down 7% from 2023);
Number of employees: 1534;
Labor efficiency ratio: US$302,000 per person.
7. Kraken: Profits of approximately $380 million in 2024, with approximately 2,500 employees
A veteran US exchange. On January 31 this year, the companys financial report showed that its revenue in 2024 was $1.5 billion. CEO Dave Ripley wrote that Krakens revenue in 2024 was $1.5 billion, more than double the revenue in 2023; adjusted pre-tax profit reached $380 million. According to news in October last year, Kraken laid off 15% of its employees, affecting about 400 positions; according to Krakens official channel news , its number of employees is about 2,500.
2024 profit: $380 million;
Number of employees: 2,500;
Labor efficiency ratio: US$152,000 per person.
Summary: Stablecoins and exchanges are the best businesses, and handling fees are king
In summary, stablecoins and exchanges are the best businesses in the cryptocurrency industry. They are not only valuable, but also profitable. Pump.fun mainly relies on the Meme coin craze to reap the benefits. The irrefutable truth of the cryptocurrency industry is still that: a business that cannot charge fees is not a good business.
