Crypto jobs: employment falls, but number of developers rises

While jobs in the crypto sector have declined by 10% in the past year, the number of developers continues to rise, with +90% from 2020. 

Crypto jobs: number of positions falls but cryptocurrency developers rise

Looking at the crypto job market, two reports have emerged showing different results. 

And indeed, looking at the study by K33 Research, it does appear that the crypto sector has seen a 10% decrease in jobs over the past year. Specifically, there are about 190,000 people working in the industry today compared to 210,000 in 2022. 

Out of all crypto workers, about 60% are employed in companies involved in trading and investment. Only 6% of workers are involved in the NFT sector, while 21% participate in blockchain protocols, analytics and mining operations.

At the same time, the semi-annual report prepared by venture capital firm Electric Capital talks about the rise of crypto developers. 

Basically, this profession accounts for a growth of +90% compared to 2020. Not only that, the number of monthly active developers was 21,300 as of June 2023, a whopping +25% over the same period in June 2021, about five months before Bitcoin hit its ATH – All Time High above $69,000. 

Crypto work and the response to market trends 

Clearly, what is maneuvering crypto jobs is, to some extent, market trends influencing the behaviors of industry companies. 

Indeed, the “long crypto winter” of 2022 has seen the likes of Coinbase, BlockFi, Crypto.com, Gemini, and Robinhood implement a strategy of layoffs to streamline their operations by decreasing the cost of employees. 

The only company bucking the trend, also reported by K33 Research, appears to have been Binance. The web’s most popular crypto-exchange, had already announced in early January that it would achieve 30% growth in hiring by 2023.

Another important influence for crypto work concerns regulations regarding cryptocurrencies in different countries. 

In this regard, K33 Research broke down the geographic areas by number of crypto workers as follows: 

• nearly 30% of the 190,000 crypto workers reside in the United States;
• the Asian and Australian regions together account for about 35% of the global cryptocurrency workforce;
• India accounts for 20% of the Asian workforce, surpassing China;
• Europe accounts for 24% of global crypto jobs, with the United Kingdom leading the way with 13,000 positions.

An in-depth look at the position of crypto developer 

Going back to Electric Capital’s report, it appears that the numbers regarding the figure of the crypto developer are “fluctuating.” 

And indeed, although the current results are up compared to other years, in the last year there has been a decline, and it has been estimated at 22%. 

Contributing most to the decline are those who have been identified as “rookie developers,” and that is, those who have been working on cryptocurrency projects for less than a year. 

In contrast, it is developers who have been working for at least a year in the industry who continue to contribute the most code commits. 

Specifically, this category includes “emerging developers,” those who have been active for one to two years, and “established developers,” those who have been working for more than two years.

According to the report, newcomers tend to enter the cryptocurrency scene at market highs and leave it during bear markets. 

Veteran developers, on the other hand, mostly stay in place, maintaining a 60% dominance after market peaks.