The market slowdown combined with declining demand for products have forced many major tech companies like Twitter, Uber, Amazon and Robinhood to announce their hiring cuts.
On Tuesday, Netflix laid off 150 employees, mostly from the United States, in response to a slowdown in revenue growth. Earlier this month, Facebook parent company Meta instituted a hiring freeze for its mid- and senior-level positions after failing to reach revenue targets.
The crypto industry has also been impacted. Following a $430 million loss in the first quarter, Coinbase announced on Tuesday that it would slow down its hiring. In an internal memo to its employees, Coinbase COO Emelie Choi wrote that plans to triple the headcount in 2022 have been put on hold due to market conditions that require the company to “slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals.”
Are we at the beginning of a major slow down in crypto industry hiring?
We’ve been hearing about a big slowdown in tech but we’ve hardly noticed it other than many more candidates looking to enter the crypto markets. We’ve been overwhelmed with requests for quality candidates and have positions across all sectors.
— Cryptorecruit (@cryptorecruit) May 18, 2022
“We have not seen a slowdown in crypto hiring. We are as busy as ever,” said Neil Dundon, founder of Crypto Recruit. Crypto Recruit specialises in recruiting exclusively within the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
“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, claimed that layoffs in the tech sector haven’t had any major affect on his crypto industry clients so far.
“I’ve only heard of two companies letting people go,” Gibson said. “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
According to Gibson, the majority of crypto projects are still in the startup and early stages of their life cycle, and are still relying on 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.”
According to CB Insights’ “State of Blockchain Q1 22” report, blockchain and crypto start-ups have had a record-breaking funding quarter, with venture funding reaching an all-time high in the three-month period, raising $9.2 billion, exceeding the previous quarter’s $8.8 billion in Q4 2021. It was the seventh quarter in a row with record blockchain funding.
Dundon also noted that he has seen more traditional tech companies and employees enter the crypto space, 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.”
According to a LinkedIn study released in January this year, crypto-related job postings increased 395% in the United States from 2020 to 2021, compared to a 98% increase in the tech industry during the same period. Blockchain developers and engineers were among the most sought-after positions.
According to Glassdoor, the average annual compensation for a blockchain developer is $109,766, while for a blockchain engineer, this number is slightly lower at $105,180.
When asked if the current crypto bear market will result in more crypto company layoffs, Dundon said that he does not expect a situation similar to what occurred in 2018.
“Crypto hiring in the past has tended to slow right down when the Bitcoin price tumbles. It was almost directly correlated to its price. This time, it’s different, though, as crypto companies now manage their treasuries in a much more responsible manner. This all translates to a much more stable hiring market,” Dundon explained.