Crypto job market holding up despite tech industry cutbacks
Crypto-specialist recruiters say they have not witnessed a downturn in crypto-related job opportunities, despite a myriad of staff lay-offs in the wider tech industry.
The crypto job market shows few signs of slowing down despite high-profile cases of staff layoffs and hiring freezes across big tech companies.
In recent weeks, several major tech companies have announced a paring back of staff, citing a downturn in the traditional market and narrowing demand for products that had boomed during the pandemic. Recently announced hiring cuts include Twitter, Uber, Amazon and Robinhood.
On Tuesday, movie streaming service Netflix terminated the roles of 150 mostly United States-based employees amid a slowdown in revenue growth. Earlier this month, Facebook parent company Meta instituted a hiring freeze for most of its mid- and senior-level positions after failing to meet revenue targets.
The crypto industry has not been totally immune. On Tuesday, Coinbase announced it was slowing down its hiring, after posting a $430 million loss in Q1. Coinbase chief operating officer Emelie Choi told employees in an internal memo that plans to triple the headcount in 2022 were on hold due to market conditions that require the company to start “slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals.”
So, are we at the beginning of a major slow down in crypto industry hiring? Crypto recruiters Cointelegraph spoke to don’t think so.
“We have not seen a slowdown in crypto hiring. We are as busy as ever,” said Neil Dundon, founder of Crypto Recruit.
Dundon’s firm specializes in recruiting exclusively within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space:
“We have a team based globally across the US, Asia/Pac and European regions and demand is equally as high across the region.”
Kevin Gibson, founder of Proof of Search, told Cointelegraph that lay-offs in the tech sector have had little to no impact on his crypto industry clients so far.
“I’ve only heard of two companies letting people go,” said Gibson. “This may change in the next month, but any slack will immediately be taken up by well-funded quality projects. As a candidate, you won’t notice any difference. if you do lose your job, you will also have multiple offers pretty quickly.”
VC funding runways
Gibson said that most crypto projects are still in the startup and early stages of their life cycle, and are still operating off venture capital (VC) funding secured last year:
“The vast majority of quality projects were funded last year, so they will continue to build and hire. There was such an imbalance of talent to role that any pull back from pre-funded projects will not be noticed.”
CB Insights’ “State of Blockchain Q1 22” report stated that blockchain and crypto start-ups saw a record-breaking funding quarter, with venture funding reaching an all-time high in the three-month period, raising $9.2 billion and beating the preceding quarter of $8.8 billion in Q4 2021. It was the seventh-consecutive quarter of record blockchain funding.
Dundon said he has seen more traditional tech companies and employees venturing into the crypto space, further enriching the crypto job market:\
“At a minimum, most forward thinking tech companies are allocating some budget to look at how they might incorporate blockchain into their existing models. Not only are more companies venturing into this space but candidates are flocking over as traditional tech downsizes.”
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