With the two-year bull market continuing to fade and a new bear market that many fear will occur soon, only the most skilled and ideologically driven talents devote themselves full-time to cryptocurrency, and everything Web3 stands for.
During the bullish years of the crypto market, many interested professionals with an eye toward the new form of innovation called blockchain and plenty of companies have toyed with the thought of joining crypto-focused firms.
Frankly, there aren’t enough people with the expertise to keep up with this dynamic business who are also prepared to take a chance on a new endeavor whose future viability is unclear. Therefore the demand for recruits in the industry exceeds the supply.
Meanwhile, a bullish market always attracts skilled workers and informs curious newcomers of the sector’s potential thanks to the future of technology. On the other hand, bear markets put even the most firm of beliefs to the test, but they also present opportunities for those who can hang in there. With the continued expansion, the crypto, Web3, and metaverse industries will need more skilled workers to pace with the innovations.
Finding full-time employment during a down market may be more challenging if the crypto market continues to decline from record highs and projects to reduce spending until the next bull cycle.
The State of Cryptocurrency Employment Today
Weak price action across multiple markets has dampened demand. Someone working in a creative industry like Web3 may benefit from abundantly available talent. This overabundance of resources lets startups acquire the expertise before their competing organizations get to them first.
It stands to reason those job postings would match the market movement and value level since new projects have yet to establish their business models fully. Because of this, novice workers are still learning the ropes of their chosen fields.
Many projects have mixed their cash between fiat and crypto stablecoins or volatile assets in selecting altcoins. However, that can vary widely depending on the business’s success in the market and proving its worth in the industry.
Professionals that fully dedicate themselves to a project are impacted by the FUD and rising tensions that cause price fluctuations. These dynamic and spontaneous events cast doubt on the minds of many experts, who fear that now would be a terrible moment to enter the business, given the current state of the market. Those on the cusp of making a career change in the crypto industry may find this as more of an opportunity to make it big rather than an impending doom in the economy.
Learning from the Past
At the peak of each upswing, projects often actively seek out the best specialists in specific fields to bolster their teams, with the highest demand for C-suite positions like a chief technology officer.
To launch an ICO between 2016 and 2018, companies needed to employ Solidity developers to push the cryptocurrency they wanted to promote and include in top exchanges. Later, in 2021 and 2022, businesses rushed to fill open positions with competent contract experts to create NFT ventures.
The most significant rise has been in the number of positions requiring technical expertise, such as engineers for smart contract-based languages like Rust and Solidity. However, the number of tasks may have piled higher ever since due to the increasing number of new implementations built into most modern applications.
Engineering teams must work on decentralized exchange projects to add multichain functionalities. These key features include bridge protocols with interchain access, bitcoin wallets, and more intelligent analytical tools. Each step in making a product is unique and often calls for its strategy.
The Industry Demands Long-Term Improvements
Current employment trends and those anticipated for the coming years resemble the cyclical patterns seen during the bearish 2018 and the recent events in 2022.
Employment in crypto gradually calls for field experts independent of the price action with each cycle in the market. Existing projects can continue to hire during the “crypto winter.” With proper salaries and an evergreen provision, crypto businesses may find the best of the best, establishing new teams that will soar companies to new heights.
