Crypto-related job postings on LinkedIn skyrocketed over 400% during the bull market in 2021.
Crypto jobs are en vogue
During the 2021 bull run, most focus has been on rising token and coin prices. However, a little-reported but high-impact effect of the bull market has been a significant rise in job postings in the crypto sector.
LinkedIn published a report that found a 395% increase in job postings containing the terms “Bitcoin,” “Ethereum,” “blockchain,” and “cryptocurrency.” In total, the crypto sector grew significantly faster than the general technology sector, where vacancies only increased by 98%. Most companies were hiring for software and financial professionals, followed by jobs in accounting, consulting, HR, and computer hardware. That points to increasing maturation in crypto-related jobs, as companies have moved beyond hiring miners and traders and towards building vital digital infrastructure on blockchains.
According to LinkedIn, increased demand by the market and an influx of investor money into the space are the main reasons for job growth. Another important factor is the institutional adoption of crypto assets, driving talented professionals from other sectors to the blockchain space. Fintech companies like Paypal and Revolut are increasingly looking for talent to work in blockchain-related positions, meaning job growth is not only happening within crypto-native projects.
Finally, LinkedIn found that the overall rise of remote work culture has been a major driver in crypto job adoption. With many industries having to go through a partly painful adjustment period during the pandemic, crypto jobs have been in a prime position to grow, as they tend to be mainly remote to begin with.
The crypto job market in a bear market
However, much of that growth happened during a massive run-up in the market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies. At its peak, the entire crypto market was worth well over $4 trillion AUD. It has significantly corrected since, with the market souring on risk-on assets like crypto. With the pandemic slowly but inevitably entering its final stages, remote work culture will also find an equilibrium, as many companies move back to hybrid work models.
All of that would indicate that crypto jobs will not grow as fast in 2022 as they did in 2021. Less investor money to go around means less cash to splash on hiring new talent. Less demand from retail and institutional investors will mean less interest in daring crypto projects that had no problem getting funds just a few months ago.
While blockchain jobs at Paypal will not go away anytime soon, those working for the new hip NFT project may find that crypto is a lot more like the early days of the internet than they liked. Back then, people also got hired for working on jobs that produced no economic benefit and had to find out about it the hard way when the market corrected.
Crypto jobs will not go anywhere, just as crypto as a whole. But expect next year’s report to feature a lot less impressive growth numbers than the previous one.