Etherscan, a product that almost every on-chain operator uses daily, has a fascinating team culture:

Founded in 2015 by Malaysian Chinese Matthew Tan, with the latest publicly available data in 2024 showing an annual revenue of $35.5 million, the team consists of 70 engineers. There is no decentralization, no community governance, and no public VC funding, yet it has become one of the most visited websites as a critical infrastructure in the industry.

Etherscan started with Ethereum, turning blockchain readability into an infrastructure business: ordinary users can browse blocks and query contracts for free, building trust and community reliance. It then monetizes by selling APIs and enterprise-level data services to high-frequency professional institutions.

Additionally, it has developed several B2B white-label products, including BscScan, PolygonScan, and others. Finally, it inserts crypto-specific advertisements on the site to further monetize traffic.

Etherscan does not issue tokens, custody assets, or participate in trading, but it maintains a neutral and irreplaceable entry point for blockchain data. It achieves long-term, stable, high-margin cash flow with minimal customer acquisition and maintenance costs.