Although the 2022 crypto market has remained bearish, the conditions have had little impact on the sector’s hiring.
In particular, cryptocurrency-related employment in 2022 hit 82,200, representing a spike of about 351% from 2019’s figure of 18,200, data by Block Research published on December 21 indicates.
A breakdown of the job’s distribution indicates that trading and brokerage accounts for the highest share at 50% or 41,136. Interestingly, despite the slowdown in the non-fungible tokens (NFT) space, the sector accounted for the third highest share of employment at 8% of 6,738.
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The researchers noted that the crypto user growth would likely open up more employment opportunities in the sector.
“With a noticeable growth in user adoption, a number of firms, and cash infusion in the industry, it becomes imperative that more employment opportunities will be generated to cater to the growing demands of the current operating market,” the study said.
Crypto sector in 2022 records highest layoffs
At the same time, the market correction in 2022 was also exhibited in the 2022 crypto market employment trends, with most entities resorting to layoffs to stay afloat.
In this line, this year recorded the highest number of layoffs at 9,564, with trading platform Crypto.com accounting for the highest share at 24%. Elsewhere, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bybit each had 6% of the total number of laid-off employees.
“The digital asset industry experienced unprecedented collapses in the span of a few months in 2022, the irrational exuberance of 2021 turned into despondency. <…> As hypothesized by industry veterans, crypto winter might be here, and companies will err on the cautionary side and keep their teams lean to extend their runway,” the report added.
However, despite the crypto sector’s growth in employment, the researchers pointed out that the space still lags behind the traditional technology industry.
Dominant crypto firms
Finally, in terms of leading employers, cryptocurrency exchanges dominate the sector, with Binance ranking as the largest firm in the industry, with a team of 7,300 employees, followed by Coinbase.
Overall, the trends in the crypto employment scene have been influenced by depressed prices. Interestingly, the researchers concluded that despite the high-profile crypto events like bankruptcies, the sector would have still corrected considering the prevailing macroeconomic factors.
