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Crypto hiring is showing signs of life, but it is not returning to the freewheeling expansion of the last bull cycle. A new report from Tiger Research argues the labor market is undergoing a structural shift, with demand migrating sharply toward 'compliance' and 'infrastructure operations' as firms prioritize licensing, controls, and reliability over headline growth.
In a dataset compiled as of June 2026, Tiger Research counted 2,932 active job postings globally across crypto companies and adjacent service providers. The firm said the market remains below its 2022 peak, even as hiring has stabilized in pockets such as centralized exchanges (CEXs) and stablecoin and payments firms. The analysis was built from manual tracking of listings on web3.career, cryptocurrencyjobs.co, major company career pages, and Korean platforms including Wanted and JobKorea, excluding DAO contributors, freelancers, and contractor roles.
The contrast with the industry’s boom period is stark. From late 2021 through the first half of 2022, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) set new highs while NFT, DeFi, and GameFi hype intensified. Exchanges, protocols, and marketplaces competed aggressively for talent, with Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance often running hundreds of openings at once as they staffed for rapid user growth and new product launches.
Tiger Research said sentiment and employment reversed in the second half of 2022. Crypto jobs in North America and Europe fell roughly 40% between 2022 and 2023, and the post-FTX era ushered in a prolonged hiring chill. While Coincub data cited in the report showed new crypto jobs rebounded to 66,494 in 2025—up 47% year over year—Tiger Research noted the count still failed to match 2022 levels. More recently, the firm highlighted a sharp pullback at the start of this year, estimating that new postings in January 2026 were down about 80% from a year earlier.
Layoffs reinforced that cooling trend. Tiger Research pointed to workforce reductions at Wemade and Consensys in the second half of 2025, followed by further cuts spreading through major industry names in 2026 including Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com, and Kraken. In March 2026, multiple firms—Gemini, Crypto.com, Algorand, OP Labs, PIP Labs, and Messari—announced headcount reductions within the same month, a cluster that the report linked to geopolitical uncertainty, slower market activity, and pressure to restore profit margins.