- Jobs need filling in a Bitcoin bull market.
- Europe hiring market heats up with landmark regulatory regime MiCA poised to roll out.
Bullish sentiment around Bitcoin’s surging price is driving business activity in the crypto space — and keeping the job market active.
Bitcoin hit $67,000 this week, a 10% gain over the week before. Analysts predict this is the beginning of a new crypto rally.
For recruiters in fintech and finance, “the market is still dull, whereas in crypto — at least in our practice — things are busy,” said Sam Wellalage, founder of crypto recruitment company WorkInCrypto.
“This is in correlation to Bitcoin prices. There’s huge activity in the crypto space” driving demand for more staffing, Wellalage told DL News.
Top 10
The top 10 exchanges are looking to fill around 1,100 roles right now.
Fintechs and traditional payments providers are also looking for crypto talent.
Payments giant Stripe is looking for a US-based product manager to expand its crypto product portfolio, while Robinhood seeks two product designers, Revolut has four open crypto-related roles, and Mastercard wants software and product developers.
What do employers want?
At the top of crypto’s recruitment wishlist? Product and business strategy people in Europe.
The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation is rolling out across the bloc. Stablecoin rules are live, and rules for exchanges will follow at the end of 2024.
With MiCA in play, Europe is increasingly seen as a strategic hub, Wellalage said.
New offerings
So companies are looking to fill key European leadership positions to strengthen their existing and build new offerings..
Wellalage said his company secured £700,000 worth of basic salaries for candidates across Europe in just four weeks.
“Many of the clients are old clients who have been silent for a while, and suddenly have come to us with urgent and very specific” hire requests, Wellalage said.
These clients included exchange OKX, sports platform Chiliz and Quantstamp, he said.
MiCA allows firms established in one EU country to offer crypto asset services to the entire bloc.
OKX picked Malta as its European base, and is aiming to grow its team there from 60 to 100 people to support its European operations, OKX Europe general manager Erald Ghoos told DL News earlier this year.
Polygon Labs sees a heightened focus on regulatory and compliance expertise, the company’s Chief People Officer Jonathan Tamblyn told DL News.
The company is looking to add another lawyer to its legal team in the US.
Plus, the industry wants to attract traditional finance as banks and asset managers look to harness the benefits of tokenising assets like stocks and bonds.
81 openings
Heavily-regulated Wall Street firms are likelier to do business with vendors that can demonstrate robust compliance.
At the time of writing, Binance has 81 openings for compliance and legal staff — about a quarter of all its open roles. Coinbase is looking to fill 20 such roles, and Crypto.com has 10.
Mainstream payments providers are also looking for more staff as governments worry that criminal networks are using the tech to launder money.
Revolut and Mastercard both look for crypto-related financial crime experts.
Tamblyn said he’s seen “a lot of movement in the crypto space right now, with talent shifting between companies more than usual due to layoffs and some projects shutting down completely.”
Layoffs are still far less than they were in crypto’s last bear market. From April 2022, 13,500 crypto workers lost their jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Since May, Matter Labs, Paxos, Moon Pay, and Bakkt have laid off a combined 153 people.
Custodia Bank laid off nine of its 36 employees, though that’s due to the bank’s ongoing legal woes rather than market conditions.
Cross-chain future
So if you’re a crypto job-seeker, how do you make yourself attractive to employers in this market?
Tamblyn’s takeaway is that, with the blockchain industry fragmenting into an ecosystem of multiple chains, applications must be able to launch on multiple blockchains. Business development and ecosystem management roles will be key.
“As the industry moves towards a multi-chain future, experts who can drive secure, seamless cross-chain experiences are essential,” Tamblyn said.
Reach out to the author at joanna@dlnews.com
