§ 01Inaugural cycle — Jul → Oct 2026collection July 2026 · results October 2026

A compensation survey designed for the industry it serves.

Our specialist compensation survey is built pure-play for digital assets and fintech — a job taxonomy and compensation framework designed for how these firms actually organise, across cash, bonus, equity, and token.

Join the founding cohort See how it works

What the results look like

Market data report · Effective 1 Oct 2026

Data filter

Family:Engineering [ENG]Function:AllSpec:AllCountry:SingaporeJob Level:P4 — PrincipalQuartile method:Harrell-Davis

Compensation Filters

Comp stage:Total comp

Base Salary
Fixed Cash Allowances
Performance Bonus
Sales Incentive
Equity
Token LTI

Job Role	Lvl	Co	N	Avg	P25	P50	P75
Backend Engineering
Multi-Specialisation	P4	22	118	$262k	$220k	$255k	$310k
Platform & Application Backend	P4	11	53	$285k	$240k	$278k	$330k
Exchange & Trading Systems	P4	8	42	$342k	$290k	$335k	$400k
Smart Contract Engineering
Multi-Specialisation	P4	16	74	$358k	$295k	$350k	$420k
Rust / Solana / Move	P4	5	18	$410k	$340k	$400k	$485k
EVM / Solidity	P4	9	38	$445k	$370k	$435k	$525k
Security Engineering
Multi-Specialisation	P4	12	47	$325k	$278k	$318k	$385k
Smart Contract Audit	P4	6	14	$510k	$425k	$498k	$605k

About Cycas

Cycas Solutions is a specialist compensation advisory serving digital asset, fintech, and high-growth technology firms. Founded and led by Dexter Chong — formerly Global Rewards Leader at a leading crypto exchange, with prior rewards leadership roles at major tech companies.

§ 02Architecture

Built from the industry up.

Generalist surveys can filter their datasets down to specific firms. What they can't change is the architecture the data was mapped into. Cycas is built the other way around: bottom-up, purpose-built for digital assets and fintech.

Illustration of job taxonomy architecture

What a generalist survey returns

What Cycas benchmarks for the same query

Software Engineer — Senior
Cycas
- 01
  EVM / Solidity EngineerENG-SCT-EVM
- 02
  Rust / Solana / Move EngineerENG-SCT-RSM
- 03
  Protocol & Core Blockchain EngineerENG-PCB-MUL
- 04
  Exchange & Trading Systems EngineerENG-BCK-EXC
- 05
  ZK Systems EngineerENG-CRY-ZKS
- 06
  Smart Contract AuditorENG-SEC-SCA
Trader
Cycas
- 01
  Spot Market MakerQRT-MKM-SPT
- 02
  Derivatives Market Maker (options / perps)QRT-MKM-DRV
- 03
  OTC & Spot TraderDTP-OTC-MUL
- 04
  Derivatives & Structured Products TraderDTP-DST-MUL
- 05
  DeFi Yield & On-Chain StrategistQRT-DYS-MUL
Investment Manager
Cycas
- 01
  Venture Capital & Private Investment — PartnerVCI-VCP-MUL
- 02
  Token Incubation & Labs LeadVCI-TIL-MUL
- 03
  Fundamental Investment Research AnalystVCI-FIR-MUL
- 04
  Liquid Token Portfolio ManagerDTP-LPM-MUL
Economist / Research Analyst
Cycas
- 01
  Tokenomics & Economic Design LeadTOK-TKN-MUL
- 02
  Tokenisation & Digital Securities SpecialistTOK-TDS-MUL
- 03
  Quantitative ResearcherQRT-QRH-MUL
- 04
  Market & Pricing Analytics ScientistDAT-DSC-MKT
Operations Manager
Cycas
- 01
  Trade Operations & Middle OfficeTAO-TOM-MUL
- 02
  Custody & Key Management OperationsTAO-CKM-MUL
- 03
  Financial Crime Ops (AML / KYC / KYB)CFC-FCO-MUL
- 04
  Sanctions & Transaction MonitoringCFC-STM-MUL
- 05
  Trust & Safety / Fraud OperationsCFC-TSF-MUL
- 06
  On-Chain Investigations & Blockchain AnalyticsCFC-OCI-MUL

Illustrative — representative sub-role splits in the Cycas taxonomy. Role families and sample composition disclosed on every cut.

§ 03Workflow

Upload. Process. Report.

The survey runs end-to-end in three phases. Participants interact with the first and the third; everything between is handled by the platform.

§ 03 / 01

Data submission

Upload a guided CSV or your existing survey job matching file (e.g. Radford, McLagan, WTW, Mercer). Our matching engine maps your data into the Cycas taxonomy. Your team reviews and approves.

Low lift submission
Automated classification with confidence scores
Participant review of flagged edge cases

Submission · classification review

1 / 3

hris_export.csv

4,280 rows · 14 columns detected

Parsed

AI matched

4,257 / 4,280

ENG-SCT-EVM-P3Solidity Engineer98%Matched
ENG-PCB-MUL-P4L2 Protocol Engineer94%Matched
TOK-TKN-MUL-M1Tokenomics Designer71%Review
QRT-MKM-SPT-P3Spot Market Maker95%Matched
ENG-BCK-EXC-P4Exchange Backend Engineer88%Matched

23 flagged for participant reviewContinue →

§ 03 / 02

Data processing

Normalisation, org-weighting, outlier handling, suppression, percentile estimation — run once per cycle against the full peer set.

Organisation-weighted to prevent any firm skewing the distribution
Minimum 3 organisations per cut for medians; higher thresholds for tail percentiles

Data protection

Participant data is confidential from the moment of upload. Submissions are held under strict access controls, used only to produce the survey outputs, and never shared with third parties. Every published cut enforces minimum three-organisation suppression — no single firm’s data is identifiable. Full terms →

Processing · pipeline status

2 / 3

4,257

Records ingested

Functions matched

Cuts cleared

Suppressed

NormalisationLeveling · 4,257 recordsDone
Outlier detectionMAD Z-score · 18 flaggedDone
Org-weightingNo firm > 30% of any cutDone
Suppression checkMin 3 orgs per cut · 3 suppressedDone
Percentile estimationHarrell-Davis · 82% completeRunning

All suppression thresholds disclosed with every cut

§ 03 / 03

Data reporting

Market data, your positioning against the peer set, and an executive summary — delivered through the reporting system alongside a written narrative report on cross-cohort trends and insights.

Standard cuts by role, level, geography, and segment
Interactive reporting system — every client has access
Written narrative report — cross-cohort trends and emerging role themes

Reporting · your positioning

3 / 3

Your medianMarket P25–P75

Platform Backend Eng
ENG-BCK-PLT-P3
$248kAt market
Protocol & Core Blockchain
ENG-PCB-MUL-P4
$490kAbove market
Quantitative Research
QRT-QRH-MUL-P4
$310kRetention risk
Tokenomics Lead
TOK-TKN-MUL-M1
$178kSlightly below

Action required · trading desk

Your quantitative trading (P4) incumbents sit at P18–P22 in cash compensation — below the market interquartile range for Singapore trading roles.

§ 04Roadmap

What founding participants get access to over time.

The founding cohort gets continued system access plus every newly launched tool and update for 12 months — included.

Jul — Oct 2026
Inaugural cycle
Next
Data collection opens July 2026 · Results published October 2026
2027 H1
Offer calibration
Planned
Paste a draft offer → instant percentile against your peer set
2027 H2
Market-heat layer
Planned
Anonymised job-posting signals · supply-side tightening alerts

Plus

A private peer forum for senior rewards leaders

Founding participants also gain access to the Cycas Community — a closed, moderated forum for verified C&B and rewards leaders across digital assets and fintech.

CYCASCompensation Survey PortalDemo

Inaugural cycle 2026

Peer network

Community

Moderated discussions for digital-assets & fintech rewards leaders

New discussion

# token-lti

Token LTI, vesting structures and dilution

Cycas Research Team · Pinned
Moderated
Welcome to the Cycas Community — how this space works
This is a closed, verified community for C&B and rewards leaders across digital assets and fintech. All members are confirmed participants of the Cycas compensation survey, ensuring conversations are grounded in real, practitioner-level experience.
💬 8 replies♥ 24 likes
2 days ago
Head of Rewards · Tier-1 CEX
Token LTIModerated
How are you structuring token vesting post-FTX? 4-year cliff vs. milestone-based?
We've moved away from pure time-based cliffs after a rough 2023. Now trialling a hybrid: 1-year cliff then monthly for 24 months, with a 15% performance gate tied to protocol TVL growth. Curious if others are layering in milestone-based unlocks.
💬 14 replies♥ 17 likes
5 hours ago
VP Total Rewards · Tier-2 Exchange
BenchmarkingModerated
Protocol / smart-contract engineers — still commanding 40–50% premium over TradFi SWEs?
Our protocol engineers are pushing back on comp benchmarks citing FAANG and early-stage DeFi offers. Generalist surveys don't capture the Solidity/Rust-specific premium properly.
💬 9 replies♥ 11 likes
Yesterday

§ 05Register interest

Built for your industry. Shape the first cycle.

Participation in the founding cycle is capped at approximately 50 firms, open to digital asset and fintech firms of any size that meet the minimum data submission and quality threshold set out in the Participation Agreement. Founding participants receive a discount on list pricing for subsequent cycles in 2027.