Mid-career blockchain developer here — salary ranges feel unpredictable, what should I pay attention to?

I’ve been working as a blockchain developer for a few years now and have started interviewing again, but I’m struggling to make sense of compensation this time around.

For similar roles, I’m seeing wildly different salary ranges. Some companies offer a decent base with a small token component, others push low base + high token upside, and a few are paying fully in stablecoins with no equity or tokens at all. On paper, everything is positioned as “fair” or “market-driven,” but the logic behind the numbers isn’t always obvious.

What makes it harder is that when I ask about vesting, liquidity, runway, or how long the current compensation structure has been in place, the answers vary a lot — sometimes confidently, sometimes vaguely. A few offers look attractive initially but start feeling risky once you dig a little deeper.

At this stage, I’m not chasing extreme upside. I just want to avoid stepping into an unstable situation.

For people who’ve been through this:
what do you personally pay attention to when evaluating salary and compensation in blockchain roles, and what signs usually make you pause?