- Crypto firms are hiring again after two years of brutal layoffs.
- Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken are just three of the major players recruiting new staff.
- One recruiter tells DL News that this is the beginning of a huge hiring wave.
Crypto industry players are back hiring talent in another sign of market optimism.
Exchanges Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken are just three of the crypto firms advertising new roles in recent weeks.
Non-crypto firms like hedge fund BlackRock and algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets are also looking to bolster their digital asset capabilities.
Sam Wellalage, founder at crypto recruitment firm WorkInCrypto.Global, says this is just the beginning of a bigger hiring wave.
“We are in a bull market like we’ve never experienced before — there’s going to be so much work for us from a recruiting perspective,” he told DL News.
Who’s hiring?
The optimism in the cryptosphere is palpable.
The bullishness behind the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that launched in January, Bitcoin hitting all-time highs in March, the halving event, and the memecoin frenzy are just some of the reasons driving industry giddiness.
No one wants to miss out, so companies are looking to grow and improve their products, Wellalage says.
“Everybody wants great engineers. Everybody wants great business developers,” he said.
Engineers
Coinbase lists 197 openings on its website. Of those, 35%, representing 69 jobs, were in engineering roles.
“We seek individuals who believe in the long-term potential of this technology and are committed to increasing economic freedom in the world,” L.J. Brock, Coinbase’s chief people officer, told DL News.
Similarly, rival exchange OKX has listed 324 open positions on its website over the last week alone. Of those, about a quarter, or 86 roles, are in its engineering team.
Kraken
Kraken lists 88 open positions on its website. Among other things, the exchange is looking for a new head of international compliance, data analysts, and to fill a smattering of engineering roles.
“The recent surge in crypto markets reinforces our existing thesis that 2024 is the right time to grow in order to meet the demand ahead of us,” Pranesh Anthapur, Kraken’s chief people officer, told DL News.
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, is also looking to recruit new members. It has advertised for 83 roles on LinkedIn in the past week.
Certik, Zodia, Riot
And it is not just exchanges that are hiring.
Crypto audit firm CertiK is looking to fill 17 positions, according to its website, and Standard Chartered’s crypto custody firm Zodia Custody has seven roles open.
Elsewhere, Bitcoin miner Riot is looking to fill 11 different roles, including a new director of operations.
Wellalage said a lot of startups are also looking to bolster their teams, but declined to mention any names.
Wall Street giants are also strengthening their crypto teams.
BlackRock, XTX
BlackRock — fresh from a spot Bitcoin ETF victory lap — is searching for a vice president for digital assets and ETF legal counsel.
XTX Markets is also on the lookout for a crypto trading operations specalist, according to LinkedIn.
While big institutions have so far only hired fewer crypto candidates in the past, they “will have bigger cluster team going forward, because you cannot ignore it,” Wellalage said.
Layoffs slowing down
The open jobs mark a step change for the industry.
“There are really good talented candidates who couldn’t find jobs six months ago but now they have jobs,” he said.
The new hiring wave follows a brutal two years.
Industry players have laid off over 13,400 workers since April 2022, according to layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi.
The layoffs have slowed down too.
The number of people who lost their jobs fell 95% from 2,414 in the first quarter of 2023 to only 102 in the same period in 2024.
One caveat: The number of people who lost their jobs could be bigger. Layoffs.fyi does not list how many people lost their jobs in every entry.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin dropped by 0.3$% on the day and is trading at $67,100.
- Ethereum is down 3%, trading at $3,270.
What we’re reading
- Taylor Swift, 1,000% returns, and FOMO are driving a $58bn market — are memecoins ruining crypto? — DL News.
- PayPal Introduces Fee-Free Cross-Border Money Transfers Using PYUSD Stablecoin — Milk Road.
- Binance Ends Support for Bitcoin NFTs — Unchained.
- Ethereum May Lessen Chances Of ETH Being Classified As A Security: JPMorgan — Milk Road.
- Ripple to face off against Circle, PayPal with new USD stablecoin — DL News.
Eric Johansson is DL News’ News Editor. Got at tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.