The crypto job market is holding up despite cutbacks in the tech industry

The crypto job market is showing few signs of slowing down, despite known instances of layoffs and hiring freezes at big tech companies.

In recent weeks, several big tech companies have announced job cuts, citing a downturn in the traditional market and reduced demand for products that have been booming during the pandemic. Recently announced job cuts include Twitter, Uber, Amazon and Robinhood.

On Tuesday, movie-streaming service Netflix laid off 150 mostly US-based employees amid a slowdown in revenue growth. Earlier this month, Facebook parent Meta imposed a hiring freeze on most of its middle and senior positions after failing to meet revenue targets.

The crypto industry has not been completely immune. On Tuesday, Coinbase said it was slowing its hiring after posting a $430 million loss in the first quarter. Coinbase Chief Operating Officer Emelie Choi told employees in an internal memo that plans to triple headcount in 2022 have been put on hold due to market conditions forcing the company to “slow hiring and meet our staffing needs.” to be re-evaluated against our primary business objectives”.

So, are we at the beginning of a major slowdown in hiring in the crypto industry? Crypto recruiters Cointelegraph spoke to don’t think so.

We’ve heard about a major slowdown in technology, but we’ve hardly noticed it except for many more candidates looking to enter the crypto markets. We have been inundated with requests for high quality candidates and have positions in all sectors.

— Cryptorecruit (@cryptorecruit) May 18, 2022

“We haven’t seen any slowdown in crypto hiring. We’re as busy as ever,” said Neil Dundon, Founder of Crypto Recruit.

Dundon’s firm specializes in recruiting exclusively in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

“We have a team based globally in the US, Asia Pacific and Europe regions and demand is equally high across the region.”

Kevin Gibson, founder of Proof of Search, told Cointelegraph that layoffs in the tech sector have had little to no impact on his crypto industry clients so far.

“[I’ve] I’ve only heard of two companies laying people off,” Gibson said. “This may change over the next month, but any gap will be immediately filled by well-funded quality projects. As such, you won’t notice any difference as a candidate…if you lose your job, you’ll have multiple offers pretty quickly too.”

Runways for VC funding

Gibson said that most crypto projects are still in the seed and early stages of their life cycle and are still operating with venture capital (VC) funding secured over the last year.

“The vast majority of quality projects have been funded this way over the past year [they will] continue building & renting. There was such an imbalance between talent and role that a withdrawal from pre-funded projects goes unnoticed.”

CB Insights’ State of Blockchain Q1 22 report found that blockchain and crypto startups enjoyed a record-breaking quarter of funding, with venture funding hitting an all-time high in the three-month period, raising $9.2 billion and the previous quarter of Surpassed $400 million in Q4 2021. It was the seventh consecutive quarter of record blockchain funding.

Dundon said he’s seen more traditional technology companies and employees venturing into the crypto space, further enriching the crypto job market.

“At the very least, most forward-thinking tech companies allocate some budget […] Check out how they could integrate blockchain into their existing models […] Not only are more companies venturing into this space, but candidates are flocking in as traditional tech downsizing.”

A Linkedin study published in January this year found that crypto-related job postings in the US increased 395 percent from 2020 to 2021, compared to a mere 98 percent increase in the tech industry over the same period. Blockchain developers and engineers were among the most requested job titles.

According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for blockchain developers is $109,766. The average annual salary for blockchain engineers is slightly lower at $105,180.

On the topic: Analysts find parallels to March 2020: Will it be different this time?

Asked if the current crypto bear market could lead to more crypto company layoffs, Dundon said he doesn’t expect a situation similar to 2018 to play out.

“Hiring of crypto employees historically has tended to slow when bitcoin price falls. It correlated almost directly with its price,” explained Dundon.

“However, this time is different as crypto companies are now managing their treasuries much more responsibly […] All of this leads to a much more stable hiring market.”