The U.S. cryptocurrency sector directly employs 34,000 workers and supports a total of 232,000 jobs across the broader economy when supplier activity and household spending are included, according to a new report released by the National Cryptocurrency Association.
The study, prepared by the Pragmatic Policy Group and commissioned by the NCA, estimates that the cryptocurrency industry will contribute more than $55 billion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2026. Of that amount, roughly $31 billion is expected to appear as labor income, covering both direct workers at crypto firms and jobs supported indirectly through the wider economy.
The findings present the digital asset industry as a measurable part of the U.S. labor market, extending beyond software developers, blockchain engineers and trading platforms into administrative work, compliance, transportation, food service, management, finance and other occupations. The report also underlines how difficult it has become to measure crypto’s economic role using standard federal data, because the sector does not yet exist as a standalone category in official employment or production statistics.
The NCA, a social welfare organization formed in 2025 to focus on blockchain education, funded the research. The group said the findings were developed independently by the Pragmatic Policy Group.
Crypto’s direct and wider job impact
The report separates the industry’s employment footprint into three categories: direct jobs, indirect jobs and induced jobs.
Direct jobs refer to workers employed inside the cryptocurrency industry itself. That figure stands at 34,000, according to the study. These roles include software development, blockchain engineering, data engineering, compliance, business operations, finance, executive management, customer support and other internal company functions.
Indirect jobs are those supported through supplier industries. The report estimates that crypto firms support 75,000 such jobs across businesses that provide services, software, infrastructure, professional support and other inputs.
Induced jobs are tied to household spending by workers in both direct and indirect roles. As employees spend wages on housing, food, transportation, health care, entertainment and other goods and services, that income circulates through the economy and supports additional employment. The study estimates 123,000 jobs fall into this category.
Together, those channels bring the total number of supported jobs to 232,000. The report emphasizes that most of these positions are not direct hires by cryptocurrency companies. Instead, they are produced through standard multiplier effects that economists use to estimate how spending in one sector moves through the rest of the economy.
The Pragmatic Policy Group said each direct crypto job supports roughly six additional jobs through indirect and induced activity.
Comparison with established industries
The NCA-commissioned analysis compares direct cryptocurrency employment with several traditional manufacturing segments tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the report, crypto’s 34,000 direct jobs exceed employment in coffee and tea manufacturing, which has about 28,400 workers. The sector also surpasses cement manufacturing, with 15,300 workers, and tobacco manufacturing, with 10,600 workers.
Those comparisons are intended to place cryptocurrency employment in a familiar economic context. While crypto remains far smaller than major U.S. industries such as health care, construction, logistics or traditional finance, the report argues that it is no longer too small to measure.
The industry’s total supported employment figure of 232,000 also shows that its economic reach extends well beyond the firms that build wallets, exchanges, blockchain infrastructure, stablecoin systems and related financial technology products.
Where the supported jobs are
The largest occupational category supported by crypto activity is office and administrative support, with 29,260 jobs, according to the report. Business and financial operations follow with 21,650 jobs, while management occupations account for 20,890.
Transportation and material moving occupations represent 18,560 jobs, and food preparation and serving roles account for 16,910. Those figures illustrate the way crypto-linked income and supplier spending flow into parts of the labor market far removed from blockchain coding or digital asset trading.
Within the 34,000 direct cryptocurrency jobs, technical roles form the largest group. Software, blockchain and data engineering account for 10,100 positions. Compliance, finance and business operations represent 5,450 jobs, while executives and managers account for 5,100.
The report’s wage findings are also notable. Average annual wages across the total supported employment base are estimated at $133,000, more than double the national median wage of $64,000. That average covers all 232,000 supported jobs, including lower-wage and non-technical roles such as janitorial services, food service and delivery work.
The high average reflects the concentration of direct crypto employment in software, finance, engineering, legal, compliance and management positions, many of which carry above-average pay.
California and New York lead the map
The employment footprint is heavily concentrated in several states, led by California and New York.
California supports 57,649 crypto-related jobs, the largest total in the country, according to the study. New York follows with 53,766. Together, the two states account for nearly half of all crypto-supported employment in the United States.
Texas ranks third with 26,536 supported jobs, followed by Washington with 15,097 and North Carolina with 9,524. The report also identifies a smaller but meaningful employment base across the Heartland, where twelve states collectively account for about 17,000 crypto-supported positions.
At the lower end, Alaska supports just 86 crypto-related jobs, according to the report.
The state-level figures suggest that cryptocurrency employment remains centered in major technology, finance and business hubs, but it is not limited to the coasts. The spread into Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, North Dakota and other states shows how mining, data centers, fintech companies, infrastructure providers and professional services can create regional economic effects.
Colorado and North Dakota examples
The report highlights Colorado and North Dakota as examples of how very different state economies can connect to the cryptocurrency sector.
Colorado supports 5,797 crypto-related jobs and receives an estimated $1.3 billion economic contribution from the sector. The report points to Denver’s blockchain ecosystem, citing 131 blockchain firms in the city that had attracted $571 million in funding as of 2025.
North Dakota supports a smaller total of 813 jobs and $154 million in economic output, but the report notes two developments that have raised the state’s profile in digital asset infrastructure. One is Atlas Power’s proposed 700-megawatt facility. The other is a state-led project to issue a U.S. dollar-backed digital token.
Those examples show the different forms crypto-related economic activity can take. In some states, it is linked primarily to software companies and financial technology. In others, it is tied more closely to energy demand, data centers, mining infrastructure or public-sector experiments with digital payments.
How the study measured an industry with no federal category
A central challenge in the report is the lack of a dedicated cryptocurrency category in federal economic data.
Because the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics do not treat crypto as a standalone sector, the Pragmatic Policy Group mapped crypto activity onto existing industries. The study used the Bureau of Economic Analysis 2024 input-output tables and based its projections on $23.22 billion in U.S. cryptocurrency industry revenue sourced from Statista.
The researchers assigned crypto-related activity to sectors including securities and commodities, credit intermediation, and data processing. Around 97% of crypto-related financial revenues were mapped to securities and commodity contracts, while the remaining 3% was assigned to data processing.
Occupational patterns were modeled after technology-oriented industries because there is no official crypto labor profile. The study maintained 2024 production structures for consistency while projecting the sector’s expected economic contribution in 2026.
That approach gives policymakers, traders and the public a structured estimate of crypto’s footprint, but it also means the figures depend heavily on assumptions about how the industry should be classified. If future federal data separates blockchain infrastructure, digital asset trading, stablecoin activity, custody, payments, mining and decentralized software into more specific categories, the employment profile could become clearer.
Industry group says crypto is now measurable
NCA president Alderoty said the report shows that cryptocurrency has developed into a measurable economic contributor in the United States.
The association’s position is that blockchain networks, digital asset companies and related service providers now support jobs and incomes across many parts of the economy. For the NCA, the employment figures are also part of a broader argument that crypto policy should be shaped with labor market and business effects in mind, not only concerns about speculation, fraud, volatility or illicit finance.
The report comes as Washington continues to debate how to regulate digital assets, stablecoins, market structure and oversight responsibilities. Policymakers have been weighing how to divide authority among federal agencies, how to protect consumers, and how to bring more crypto activity under U.S. rules.
Recent prediction-market pricing cited by market participants has shown fluctuating expectations over whether major U.S. crypto market legislation could become law before the end of the year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also said pending market bills are moving toward a firmer vote in Congress, adding to the sense that digital asset regulation is entering a more active phase.
For traders, the policy debate matters because clearer rules could influence where platforms operate, how digital assets are listed, how stablecoins are issued, and whether more activity shifts toward U.S.-regulated entities. Still, the report itself focuses on employment and economic output rather than price forecasts or trading strategy.
Market activity adds to the backdrop
The labor report lands against a backdrop of renewed activity in digital asset markets.
Market data from mid-July 2026 showed major platform trading volumes rising 15% to about $1.11 trillion. Bitcoin also moved above $66,600 after U.S. spot funds recorded roughly $500 million in net inflows over a four-day period.
Those figures point to stronger market engagement, though short-term trading activity and long-term employment impact are not the same measure. Higher trading volumes can increase revenue for some platforms and service providers, but the industry’s job base also depends on regulation, capital availability, technology adoption, cybersecurity needs, compliance costs and wider use of blockchain-based systems.
The report does not claim that market rallies automatically produce sustained employment growth. Instead, it frames crypto as an industry with an existing labor footprint that now reaches suppliers and local economies.
Findings come with important caveats
The study’s conclusions should be read with several limitations in mind.
First, it was commissioned by an industry association that supports blockchain education and has an interest in showing crypto’s economic significance. The NCA said the work was independently developed, but readers should still recognize the funding source.
Second, input-output models are useful for estimating economic linkages, but they are not the same as direct payroll counts. The 232,000 figure includes jobs supported through supplier relationships and household spending, not only workers employed by crypto firms.
Third, crypto’s rapid changes make measurement difficult. Revenue, employment, trading activity, mining economics and regulatory costs can shift sharply from year to year. A projection based on 2024 input-output tables and 2026 revenue expectations may need revision as new data becomes available.
Even with those caveats, the report adds detail to a policy debate often dominated by price volatility, enforcement actions and regulatory disputes. Its central finding is that the U.S. cryptocurrency sector, while still relatively young, now supports a broad employment chain that includes highly paid technical roles as well as ordinary service and administrative jobs across the country.
Want to understand crypto’s wider economic impact? Explore our guide on future U.S. crypto regulation and policy-driven growth.
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