What does a stablecoin program cost to build, and what can it make?
Illustrative only. Your actual costs and revenue will differ.
Scenario modeling
Target Segment
Build yourself
What you think it would take. Set the team, rate and timeline; we price it out.
Team size
Cost per person
Fully loaded: salary, benefits and overhead (about 1.3× base). Also prices the smaller team you run with Rehive.
Build timeMonths your team spends building the platform to production-ready, paying the team the whole time with no revenue. Launch prep and training is a separate lever on the revenue side; pre-filled by the team level, drag to your own plan.
8 mo5 people × $10K/mo × 8mo
≈ $400Kto build
then ≈ $600K/yrto run
Technical, product and engineering costs.
Rehive gets you live ~8 months sooner and cuts first-year build cost by ~90%. You break even ~20 months earlier and generate $27.6M by year 5 — without carrying an engineering payroll you owe whether revenue comes or not.
Profit by year 5
Capital to break-evenThe most you are ever out of pocket on a running total — the deepest point of the profit journey. Variable costs are paid out of the revenue they create, so what you fund up front is the fixed monthly burn until revenue catches up. Plan a buffer above this.
≈ 4× less with RehiveWith Rehive
≈ $331.5K
Build yourself
≈ $1.3M
≈ $965.7K less to fund with Rehive. Deepest point around month 10 — what you fund before revenue pays it back.
Run-rate profitWhat the program earns each month once adoption has fully ramped and the economics reach steady state. Against the capital to break-even, this is your return on the capital you put in.
With Rehive
$139.2K/mo
Build yourself
$127.7K/mo
≈ $11.6K more each month with Rehive. Once ramped, this is the monthly return on the capital above.
| 5-yr total | Build yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Active users | 42,699 | 44,017 |
| Volume | $1.3B | $1.6B |
| RevenueHow this revenue is priced: a blended 169 bps (~1.7%) on billable volume — deposits, withdrawals and card spend, excluding free P2P. Value-based pricing for segments where your product earns its fee, not the thinnest rates. Revenue tracks the fees you set, so tune the levers to your own. | $21.7M | $27.6M |
| Cost | $13.6M | $16.4M |
| Profit | $8.2M | $11.2M |
Detailed income statement
Enter your access code to see the full income statement, or talk to sales for pricing tailored to your plan and scale.
Income statement · Year 1A build-vs-buy income statement: revenue, less the cost of revenue (the provider cost of moving the money) to gross profit, then operating expenses — technology & platform, sales & marketing, general & administrative — down to operating income. Expand any line for its detail. The light-grey column is the build-it-yourself figure for the same line.
Variable cost is covered by the revenue it creates, so what you fund up front is the fixed burn until revenue catches up. That accumulated shortfall is your cash needed to start, below.
Revenue & unit economicsPer-user revenue, blended take and the scale metrics behind the income statement above. Build-it-yourself vs Rehive.
Unit economics · Year 1Figures Year 1. Where Rehive and build-it-yourself differ it is the launch timing — building it yourself goes live later, so it captures less in the early years; rates (blended take) are the same either way.
| Metric | Yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue · individualsTotal revenue from individuals Year 1. | $59.9K | $666.6K |
| Revenue · businessesTotal revenue from businesses Year 1. | $73.4K | $816.9K |
| Revenue / individualRevenue from individuals divided by registered individuals, Year 1. | $1 | $17 |
| Revenue / businessRevenue from businesses divided by registered businesses, Year 1. | $92 | $1K |
| Blended take on billable volumeVolume-based fees (on/off-ramp, card, FX, and P2P when you charge for it) as basis points of the volume they are charged on. Free P2P is excluded, since counting zero-fee volume would understate the take; a charged P2P fee is included on both sides. It is a rate, so it is the same whichever way you build. 100 bps = 1%. | 169 bps | 169 bps |
| Billable volumeOn/off-ramp + card volume moved Year 1. | $7.9M | $87.6M |
| TransactionsBillable transactions (on/off-ramp + card) Year 1. Billable volume divided by transactions is roughly your average ticket. | 150,779 | 1,677,813 |
| Active users · period endActive users at the end of Year 1. Build-it-yourself launches ~8 months later, so its base is smaller in the early years. | 2,919 | 15,617 |
Outside Rehive's shareTwo kinds of cost live here — provider-direct charges (billed straight to you by your regulated infrastructure and card providers) and your own operating costs (staff and functions you run yourself). Neither enters Rehive's share-of-take calculation or netting. Shown for build-vs-buy completeness so you can see the full cost stack alongside the income statement above.
Not part of Rehive's fee — shown for completeness
Paid to your providers
Cost-plus VA sub-accounts
A transparent marked-up passthrough Rehive will bill for virtual sub-account provisioning — shown here as a provider-direct cost with Rehive's margin made explicit. Tier-linkable. Not yet wired.
Your own operating costs
Cost & efficiencyCost per user, cost on volume, fixed-cost share and the efficiency ratios behind the income statement above. Build-it-yourself vs Rehive.
Cost economics · Year 1The cost mirror of unit economics — cost per user, cost as bps of volume, and how much of it is fixed. Cost / user is totalled Year 1; the ratios are horizon-invariant. Compare cost / user directly with revenue / user, and cost on volume with your blended take.
| Metric | Yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Cost / user · Year 1Total cost divided by registered users, Year 1. Compare with revenue / user. | $23 | $41 |
| Cost on volumeCost as basis points of money moved — a rate. Compare with your blended take on the revenue side. 100 bps = 1%. | 74 bps | 69 bps |
| Fixed cost shareShare of cost that's flat regardless of volume — the rest scales with usage and is normally covered by your fees. Lower means more operating leverage; build-it-yourself carries a heavier fixed team. | 57% | 26% |
Efficiency · Year 1Whether the economics work at these levers: margin per user, how long acquisition takes to earn back, and lifetime value vs what you spend to acquire. Shown for year 1 (average monthly) — earlier years carry more fixed-cost drag per user.
| Metric | Yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Margin / user / moRun-rate revenue minus cost, per registered user. | $3.13 | $3.41 |
| CAC paybackMonths of per-user margin to earn back blended acquisition cost. Blank when it loses money per user. | 4.4 mo | 4.0 mo |
| LTV : CACLifetime margin per user (margin × average lifetime at your churn) vs blended acquisition cost. 3:1 or better is the usual healthy benchmark. | 7.6 : 1 | 8.3 : 1 |
Profit & riskWhat the operating income above works out to per user, per dollar of revenue and per dollar of capital, plus the journey facts — break-even, peak cash and time to run-rate. Build-it-yourself vs Rehive.
Profit economics · Year 1What the profit works out to per user, per dollar of revenue, and per dollar of capital: margin per user, net margin, and return on the cash you needed to start.
| Metric | Yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Margin / user / moRun-rate revenue minus cost, per registered user. | $3.13 | $3.41 |
| Net margin · Year 1Net profit as a share of revenue for the period. | -601% | -13% |
| Return on capitalNet kept divided by the cash needed to start — how many times the period's profit returns the capital you had to fund. | -0.6× | -0.6× |
Risk & timelineHow long to profit and how much capital it takes — the journey facts behind the numbers above.
| Metric | Yourself | With Rehive |
|---|---|---|
| Break-evenThe month cumulative cash turns positive. | M31 | M11 |
| Capital to break-evenThe most you are ever out of pocket on a running total — the deepest point of the profit journey. Variable costs are paid out of the revenue they create, so what you fund is the fixed burn until revenue catches up. Plan a buffer above this. | ≈ $1.3M | ≈ $331.5K |
| Committed spend to break-evenTotal fixed cost billed from launch to break-even, before revenue offsets any of it. The gross committed outlay — always more than the cash needed to start, which nets the revenue earned along the way. | $2.6M | $358.5K |
| Run-rate reachedThe month adoption hits its target and the economics reach steady state. | ~M20 | ~M12 |
| Users by M60Registered users by the end of the horizon (fully ramped either way). | 110,585 | 110,585 |
Revenue vs cost with Rehive · M0–M12Monthly revenue (green line) against your monthly cost with Rehive, split into FIXED (committed — team, hosting, subscription, ops, compliance, committed minimums) on the bottom and VARIABLE (usage, verification, processing and acquisition — funded by the revenue it creates) stacked on top. Where the revenue line rises above the top of the cost stack, you're profitable each month. Monthly break-even ~M11. Use the switch to compare the other path.
Reaches run-rate ~M12 · 39,236 users by M12
Rehive vs building it yourself
~8 mo
Sooner to launch
≈ $400K
Build cost avoided
+ $610.9K
More kept · Year 1
≈ $965.7K
Less peak cash
Year 1–5 P&L with RehiveRevenue, cost with Rehive and profit per year. Includes growth beyond run-rate (phase 2). Loss-then-profit is normal early. Use the switch to compare the other path.
By M60: 110,585 users · $738.3K/mo
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.5M | $3.9M | $5.9M | $7.6M | $8.7M |
| Cost (Rehive) | −$1.7M | −$2.5M | −$3.5M | −$4.2M | −$4.5M |
| Profit / loss | $190.3K | $1.4M | $2.4M | $3.4M | $4.2M |
This calculator is for illustration only. It uses generalized cost and pricing structures typical of the industry, not figures specific to your business or a formal Rehive quote. Nothing here is a guarantee, offer, or projection of actual outcomes — real-world results depend on your product, market, pricing, and execution, and will differ. Not financial, legal, or tax advice.