Despite only 34,000 direct employees, the crypto industry will contribute $55 billion to the US economy in 2026, a new report finds, with average wages of $133,000.
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The crypto industry employs only 34,000 people directly in the United States. Those jobs will contribute $55 billion to the economy by 2026, according to a new report from the National Cryptocurrency Association and the Pragmatic Policy Group.
The study, called "Crypto at Work," says it is the first to comprehensively analyze the industry's footprint in the US labor market. Direct crypto jobs pay an average of $133,000 a year, more than double the national median wage of $64,000 and ahead of average pay in tech and manufacturing.
"Crypto creates many jobs outside the tech industry and directly supports more jobs than key manufacturing industries," the report said.
Using a standard input-output model, the report's authors calculated that each direct crypto job supports roughly six additional jobs elsewhere – at suppliers and at businesses where crypto workers spend their paychecks. Stacking those indirect and induced jobs on top of the direct total gives a figure of 232,000 jobs in total that the industry supports.
By raw headcount, though, crypto remains a small employer. The report benchmarks its 34,000 direct jobs against coffee and tea manufacturing, which employs 28,400 people, and tobacco manufacturing, at 10,600.
The industry's footprint is also geographically lopsided. California supports 57,600 of the industry's 232,000 total jobs. New York accounts for 53,800. Texas adds another 26,500. Together those three states represent about 60% of the jobs.
Heartland states from Iowa to the Dakotas together support just over 17,000 jobs. The report singles out Colorado and North Dakota as rising hubs, pointing to Colorado's crypto-friendly tax policy and firms including Riot Platforms and Crusoe Energy. North Dakota's flare-gas mining operations and a pilot stablecoin from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota were also cited.
The Pragmatic Policy Group described the study as the first comprehensive, economy-wide look at crypto's labor market impact, built on 2024 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The firm also flagged a limitation: because "a dedicated crypto workforce profile does not yet exist," it modeled crypto's financial activities using the occupational mix of broader technology industries rather than traditional finance.
NCA, which funded the research, said it hopes the findings give policymakers "an evidence-based understanding of the sector's economic contribution." The nonprofit launched in 2025 to promote safe, informed cryptocurrency adoption in the US.
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