Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author: Wenser (@wenser 2010)

In early February 2025, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino published a document announcing (Tether 2024 Q4 Asset Proof), which mentioned: "Tether's full-year profit in 2024 was as high as 13.7 billion US dollars; the quarterly profit in Q4 2024 was 6 billion US dollars." After the news was exposed, it caused heated discussions in the market. As the current leader in the stablecoin market, many people know that Tether has a strong ability to attract money, but its annual profit of nearly US$14 billion is still staggering. At the same time, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, the Tether team has only 165 people, and the labor efficiency ratio has reached an astonishing US$83.03 million per person, which is even far higher than the investment giant Goldman Sachs (the latter has about 45,000 employees and annual profits of about US$14 billion in 2024). It has to be said that compared with traditional industries, the labor efficiency ratios of the top companies in the cryptocurrency industry are extremely impressive.

In view of this, this article will briefly review a number of crypto money-making machines 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

1. Tether (USDT issuer): 13.7 billion in profits, with a team of less than 200 people

The world's largest stablecoin USDT issuer, which dominates the stablecoin market, supports the value of tokens by holding assets such as U.S. Treasuries, 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 crypto machines. According to previous monitoring by on-chain analysts, pump.fun's revenue from its launch to the end of 2024 was approximately 1.703 million SOL. Based on an average price of US$198, the total profit was approximately US$337 million.

In addition, according to Qiao, the founder of Alliance DAO, the investor behind pump.fun, 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 world's largest cryptocurrency exchange has more than 250 million users and total spot and derivatives trading volume has exceeded $100 trillion.

  • 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 world's first listed cryptocurrency exchange. According to Coinbase's Q4 2024 financial report, Coinbase's revenue in the fourth quarter of last year 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 10% increase from the same period last year.

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 world's 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 directly disclosed yet. The monthly revenue in December 2024 was US$132.77 million. According to previous news, Circle's 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 growth 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: 1,534;

  • Labor efficiency ratio: US$302,000 per person.

7. Kraken: Profit of approximately $380 million in 2024, with approximately 2,500 employees

A long-established American exchange. On January 31 of this year, the company's financial report showed that its revenue in 2024 was US$1.5 billion. CEO Dave Ripley wrote that Kraken's revenue in 2024 was US$1.5 billion, more than double its revenue in 2023; adjusted pre-tax profit reached US$380 million. According to news in October last year, Kraken laid off 15% of its employees, affecting about 400 positions; according to official news from Kraken, 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

To summarize, 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 profits, and the unbreakable truth in the cryptocurrency industry is still that: a business that cannot charge fees is not a good business.

(The above content is excerpted and reproduced with the permission of our partner PANews, original link | Source: Odaily Planet Daily)

Statement: The article only represents the author’s personal views and opinions, and does not represent the objective points and positions of the block. All content and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investors should make their own decisions and transactions. The author and block customers will not bear any responsibility for the direct or indirect losses caused by investors' transactions.

The article "A look at the top 7 money-making companies in the cryptocurrency industry: With an annual profit of $14 billion, this company is the most profitable" was first published on (BlockCenter).

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