- Crypto hires are well-dispersed around the US, implying that there is no major single crypto hub in the country.
- New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles account for the largest shares, with Miami and Chicago metropolitan areas coming up next.
- Some crypto-friendly officials try to lure crypto businesses to their cities.
A recent study of crypto hires in the US suggests that the industry is well-dispersed around the country, with cryptocurrency centers emerging anywhere from Miami to Denver.
The report, conducted by LinkedIn at Bloomberg’s request, reveals that there is no major single crypto hub in the US. Nevertheless, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles account for the largest shares, with Miami and Chicago metropolitan areas coming up next, accounting for around half of the hires cumulatively.
The remaining half of crypto hires are dispersed throughout the country, with mid-sized cities like Austin, Denver, and Raleigh leading the way. As per LinkedIn data, two or more people were hired for every 100,000 residents of these cities.
Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of crypto technology services company Anchorage Digital, believes the dispersed nature of crypto hires reflects the industry’s ethos of decentralization. “Crypto companies are an extreme version of tech, where the ethos of their work is about being decentralized. This means cities and states with lower taxes, great infrastructure, and quick access to an international airport will benefit from fully remote work,” he said.
In the study, a crypto hire was counted for any LinkedIn members in the US who started a new position with titles including the keywords “cryptocurrency,” “Bitcoin,” “blockchain,” “Ethereum,” or “Solidity” — which is a programming language for blockchain technology — in the first nine months of the year.
Officials Aim to Lure Crypto Businesses
Officials in various cities see Bitcoin and crypto as innovations and try to attract business related to this industry by promising a regulatory-friendly environment. Back in June, amidst China’s rigorous crackdown on crypto mining, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez invited Bitcoin miners and promised low-cost nuclear energy.
“We want to make sure that our city has an opportunity to compete. We’re talking to a lot of companies and just telling them, ‘Hey, we want you to be here.'” he said back then. More recently, Suarez pledged to take his next paycheck in Bitcoin, a move that prompted the newly elected New York City mayor to follow suit.
New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams said he intends to take his first three paychecks in BTC, adding that New York is poised to become a crypto hub. “NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!,” he tweeted.
Crypto Jobs on The Rise
As crypto adoption continues to grow around the globe, crypto firms find the need to onboard more individuals with relevant skills in the industry. As of now, Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, has more than 1,200 job openings globally.
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said in June that they were “hiring aggressively.” CZ added that “the industry is growing exponentially on a year-to-year basis, and we need to scale our team to cope with it.”
Aside from crypto firms, a number of prominent fintech companies like Amazon and Apple are also on the lookout for crypto and blockchain talents.
