Crypto jobs market holding up despite tech industry cutbacks

Despite being the hottest market in tech right now, the cryptocurrency sector is experiencing a downturn in jobs. This may be due to more companies adopting blockchain and decentralized systems as opposed to centralized ones like before.

The “Silicon Valley blockchain startups” are still booming, even with the tech industry cutbacks. The crypto market is not affected by the cutbacks as much because there is a demand for it.

Despite high-profile incidents of staff layoffs and recruiting restrictions at major internet businesses, the bitcoin employment market shows no signs of slowing down.

Several prominent software businesses have announced job reductions in recent weeks, citing a slowing conventional market and dwindling demand for goods that soared during the epidemic. Twitter, Uber, Amazon, and Robinhood have all recently announced layoffs.

Netflix let off 150 workers, the most of whom were headquartered in the United States, on Tuesday, citing a slowdown in revenue growth. After failing to fulfill sales objectives earlier this month, Facebook parent company Meta implemented a hiring block for majority of its mid and senior level employees.

LinkedIn profile of a Netflix employee

The cryptocurrency business has not been completely spared. Following a $430 million loss in the first quarter, Coinbase said on Tuesday that it was shutting down recruiting. In an internal message, Coinbase CEO Emelie Choi said that plans to quadruple the firm’s staff by 2022 had been put on hold owing to market circumstances that force the company to “delay recruiting and review our headcount requirements versus our highest-priority business objectives.”

So, are we at the start of a huge hiring slowdown in the crypto industry? Crypto recruiters contacted by Cointelegraph disagree.

We’ve heard there’s been a major slowdown in technology, but we haven’t witnessed anything but a surge of people trying to join the crypto markets. We’ve been inundated with inquiries for qualified applicants and have openings in a variety of industries.

May 18, 2022 — Cryptorecruit (@cryptorecruit)

“The recruiting of crypto professionals has not slowed.” “We’re as busy as ever,” said Crypto Recruit founder Neil Dundon.

Dundon’s organization focuses in blockchain and cryptocurrency recruitment.

“We have a worldwide staff headquartered in the United States, Asia/Pacific, and Europe, and demand is equally strong across the board.”

Layoffs in the IT sector, according to Kevin Gibson, creator of Proof of Search, have had little to no influence on his crypto business customers thus far.

“I’ve only heard of two firms laying off employees,” Gibson remarked. “This might change in the next month, but any gaps will be quickly filled by well-funded, high-quality initiatives.” As a candidate, you will not notice any differences… If you quit your work, you’ll have many employment offers relatively rapidly.”

VC funding timelines

Most crypto companies, according to Gibson, are still in the early phases of their life cycle and rely on venture capital (VC) money received last year.

“The vast majority of quality projects were funded last year so [they will] continue to build & hire. There was such an imbalance of talent to role that any pull back from pre-funded projects will not be noticed.”

According to CB Insights’ State of Blockchain Q1 22 study, blockchain and crypto start-ups saw a record-breaking financing quarter, with venture capital hitting an all-time high of $9.2 billion in the three-month period, topping the previous quarter’s $400 million in Q4 2021. It was the eighth quarter in a row that blockchain financing reached new highs.

More conventional IT organizations and personnel are coming into the crypto sphere, according to Dundon, significantly enhancing the crypto employment market.

“At the very least, most forward-thinking IT businesses are dedicating some resources to […] investigate how they may integrate blockchain into their current models […]” As conventional IT downsizes, more firms are going into this arena, and applicants are migrating over.”

According to a Linkedin report published in January this year, crypto-related job posts in the United States increased 395 percent from 2020 to 2021, compared to just a 98 percent gain in the IT sector over the same time. Blockchain developers and engineers were the most popular job titles.

The average yearly blockchain developer pay, according to Glassdoor, is US$109,766. The average yearly compensation for a blockchain engineer in the United States is US$105,180.

Analysts see similarities between now and March 2020: Will things be different this time?

When asked whether the current crypto bear market would lead to additional crypto layoffs, Dundon stated he doesn’t foresee a scenario comparable to what happened in 2018.

“In the past, when the Bitcoin price dropped, crypto recruiting slowed dramatically.” It was practically precisely proportional to its price,” Dundon stated.

“This time, though, it’s different since crypto firms are now considerably more prudent with their treasuries […] All of this adds up to a considerably more stable job market.”

The “new york times blockchain” is a report that looks at the current state of the crypto jobs market. The article discusses how despite recent cutbacks, the market has held up well.