- Jobs need to be filled in a Bitcoin bull market.
- The European recruitment market is heating up with the landmark regulatory regime that MiCA is about to roll out.
The bullish sentiment around the rising Bitcoin price is driving trading activity in crypto and keeping the job market active.
Bitcoin hit $67,000 this week, a 10% gain from the previous week. Analysts predict that this is the start of a new crypto rally.
For recruiters in the fintech and finance sectors, “the market is still boring, whereas in crypto – at least in our practice – things are busy,” said Sam Wellalage, founder of the recruitment company in crypto WorkInCrypto.
“This correlates with Bitcoin prices. There is tremendous activity in the crypto space, leading to demand for additional staff, Wellalage said. DL News.
Top 10
The top 10 exchanges are currently looking to fill approximately 1,100 positions.
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 is looking for two product designers, Revolut has four open crypto-related positions and Mastercard is looking for software and hardware developers. products.
What do employers want?
Top of the crypto recruiting wish list? People in product and commercial strategy in Europe.
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Regulation of the European Union’s crypto-asset markets is being rolled out across the bloc. Stablecoin rules are in effect and exchange rules will follow at the end of 2024.
With MiCA in play, Europe is increasingly seen as a strategic hub, Wellalage said.
New offers
Companies are therefore seeking to occupy key European leadership positions to strengthen their existing offerings and create new offerings.
Wellalage said his company had secured £700,000 in base salaries for candidates across Europe in just four weeks.
“Many clients are past clients who have been quiet for a while and suddenly come to us with very specific, urgent hiring requests,” Wellalage said.
These clients included the OKX exchange, sports platform Chiliz and Quantstamp, he said.
MiCA allows companies established in one EU country to offer crypto asset services to the entire bloc.
OKX has chosen Malta as its European base and aims to grow its team there from 60 to 100 people to support its European operations, said OKX Europe managing director Erald Ghoos. DL News earlier this year.
Polygon Labs is seeing an increased focus on regulatory and compliance expertise, said Jonathan Tamblyn, the company’s chief human resources officer. DL News.
The company is looking to add another lawyer to its legal team in the United States.
Additionally, the sector is keen to attract traditional finance as banks and asset managers seek to exploit the benefits of tokenizing assets such as stocks and bonds.
81 openings
Heavily regulated Wall Street firms are more likely to do business with vendors who can demonstrate rigorous compliance.
At the time of writing, Binance has 81 vacancies for compliance and legal staff, approximately a quarter of all its open positions. Coinbase is looking to fill 20 of these roles, and Crypto.com has 10.
Major payment service providers are also looking for more staff as governments fear criminal networks will use the technology to launder money.
Both Revolut and Mastercard are looking for crypto financial crime experts.
Tamblyn said he’s seen “a lot of movement in the crypto space right now, with talent moving between companies more than usual due to layoffs and some projects shutting down completely.”
Layoffs are still much lower than during the last crypto bear market. As of April 2022, 13,500 crypto workers have lost their jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Since May, Matter Labs, Paxos, Moon Pay and Bakkt have laid off a total of 153 people.
Custodia Bank has laid off nine of its 36 employees, although this is due to the bank’s ongoing legal problems rather than market conditions.
Cross-chain future
So, if you’re looking for a job in crypto, how can 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 need to be able to launch on multiple blockchains. Business development and ecosystem management roles will be essential.
“As the industry moves toward a multi-chain future, experts who can deliver secure and seamless cross-chain experiences are essential,” Tamblyn said.
Contact the author at joanna@dlnews.com
