TL;DR
The global web3 job market is following the same declining pattern as the cryptocurrency market.
In terms of regional trends, North America, especially the United States, has the highest number of job openings and a strong influence on the web3 market. It's also interesting to note that Asia-Pacific region has surpassed Europe in the number of job postings, which is likely a result of governments in Asia actively supporting the web3 industry.
CEX is by far the most active sector in terms of hiring. This may be due to the fact that while the volume of cryptocurrency trading is rapidly declining, centralized exchanges have been able to survive based on a clear business model of 'transaction fees' compared to other sectors.
Introduction
A company's job postings are a measure of 1) the company’s ability to execute on its strategy, and 2) the demand in a particular industry, which can be indicators of future activity. In this article, we will analyze global web3 hiring trends to provide an overall insight into the market. The main data source for this report is publicly available data on Web3Jobs, a site that provides job listings in the web3 field. The report will be followed by an analysis of web3 job postings, focusing on the third quarter of 2023.
Global web3 job market trends
The global web3 job market is following the same pattern as the crypto market downturn. The sharp freeze in the crypto market in the fourth quarter of 2021 led to a decline in job postings, the effects of which is still being felt today. In the last three months, the number of job postings has continued to decline, with 1,196 in July 2023, 946 in August, and 838 in September.
Web3 job market trends by region
When looking at web3 hiring trends in each region over the past three months, the top three regions for hiring are as follows 1/ North America (36%), 2/ Remote (25%), 3/ Asia Pacific (20%), 4/ Europe (15%), 5/ Middle East (2%), 6/ Africa (1%), and Latin America (1%).
The figure above also shows the dominance of North America, and in particular the United States, in the web3 market. The region posted the most jobs from the fourth quarter of 2021 to date.
It's also worth noting that Asia Pacific region has surpassed Europe in terms of the number of web3 job postings. Asia consistently outpaced Europe starting from from Q3 2022 to the present, and holding the overall third spot. This is likely due to the fact that governments in Asia have been actively supporting and favoring the web3 industry in recent years. Against this backdrop, many web3 companies are expanding into Asia.
While Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa show similar patterns, North America, Europe, and Asia have distinct characteristics. The majority of web3 job postings in North America are based in the United States, with the United States accounting for approximately 94.6% of all job postings in North America. In Europe, the United Kingdom accounts for 35% of all jobs in Europe with a total of 161 jobs. Finally, in Asia Pacific, Singapore has the highest number of job postings with 196, Hong Kong has 93, and India has 86. These three countries account for approximately 64% of all job postings in Asia Pacific.
However, in the Asia Pacific region, South Korea (16) and Japan (20) have significantly lower numbers of web3 job postings in the last three months. This is likely due to the low percentage of foreigners employed in these countries coupled with the fact that most job postings are listed in domestic platforms, making it difficult to see their numbers on global job posting platforms. South Korea and Japan have fairly low rates of foreign employment, with foreign workers accounting for only 3% and 2.7% of the total workforce, respectively. In contrast, foreigners consist of one-third of the workforce in Singapore. Therefore, the number of web3 jobs in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be higher when their actual hiring status is reflected.
Web3 job market trends by sector
The most active area of web3 hiring in the last three months is CEX (Centralized EXchange). Although the volume of cryptocurrency transactions is rapidly declining due to the downturn in the web3 market, centralized exchanges are showing sustainability based on a clear business model of 'transaction fees' compared to other sectors.
In addition, as Binance, the undisputed global number one exchange, faces pressure in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, other exchanges are actively hiring to catch up. In addition, the opening of crypto markets in the Asia-Pacific region has led to a surge in hiring across all CEXs. In fact, over the past three months, the Asia-Pacific region has accounted for nearly 49% of all job postings related to crypto exchanges.
Finally, when we look at the sectoral trends in the countries with the highest web3 hiring in each region, we see that CEX hiring in the U.S. and U.K. is lower than in other regions. This is likely a result of regulatory pressure on crypto exchanges in said countries. Binance was recently indicted by U.S. regulators and its license was revoked in the U.K. Singapore, Hong Kong, and India have high CEX hiring rates, with Gemini focusing in India and OKX and Crypto.com focusing in Hong Kong.
Other prominent web3 companies
As of Q3 2023, the number of job postings related to exchanges is the most prominent, but there are also interesting developments in other areas. First, the number of job postings in the stablecoin space surged, with a 4.7x increase (22 to 104) compared to Q2. Most of these appear to be active US hires at stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos. Circle recently announced plans to issue USDC to six new chains, including BASE and Polygon. Paxos is also on the offensive, issuing PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD.
The infrastructure sector is also active, with Ripple making 67 hires, Polygon making 33 hires, and Immutable making 20 hires in the last three months. Ripple, in particular, is likely acting upon the recent release of the results on its securitization case, which has removed some of the regulatory uncertainty.
Participate in our 1-minute survey to help improve our weekly reports. As a thank you, you can download Tiger Research's original "2023 Country Crypto Matrix" spreadsheet, an all-in-one spreadsheet for the global virtual asset market analysis after finishing the survey.
