Good morning,
“For the finance industry, crypto’s appeal to younger professionals means fintech’s threat to the talent pipeline for big banks and asset managers will only continue to grow,” LinkedIn’s Devin Banerjee, author of a new report, told me.
Crypto hiring is hot—outpacing hires in traditional finance industries, according to LinkedIn’s analysis. In the U.S., from 2019 to 2021, crypto hires have increased by 73%. In comparison, over the same period, the net number of hires in traditional finance industries declined by 1%, the report found.
Cryptocurrency trader was the top crypto job title in 2021, followed by blockchain developer, and software engineer. “Finance and Big Tech have been battling it out for talent for the last, call it, a decade and change,” Michael Bucella, general partner at digital assets investment firm BlockTower Capital, recently told Fortune in a report on the talent exodus from Wall Street to crypto. “And now both of those industries are battling against each other but more so … battling against the world of crypto, decentralized finance [DeFi], and Web3.”
A long resume, it seems, isn’t a requirement to become a crypto professional. Recent crypto hires had 1.26 years of experience prior to starting their current job, compared to 1.64 years for finance hires, LinkedIn found. However, 37% of recent crypto hires earned a master’s degree or an MBA, compared to 31% of recent finance hires with the same degrees.
“Crypto, while a relatively young industry, is maturing in some important ways,” Banerjee explains. “Startups that have gained traction and established companies that have found success with crypto offerings are increasingly hiring for functions such as strategy, operations, finance, legal and compliance—where master’s degrees can bring specific credibility and expertise.”
Certification is also a route for many crypto professionals, such as digital asset advisors. For example, the Certified Digital Asset Advisor (CDAA) designation was created by a decentralized autonomous organization PlannerDAO. A decentralized network of financial advisors oversees its requirements and curriculum and provides the certification. Now, PlannerDAO is providing those who complete the CDAA program with a unique NFT as their certification.
The NFT expires after a year, so they have to get re-certified to maintain their status, Julien Genestoux, founder of Unlock, the company that creates the NFTs, told me. “Normally, you have to trust an authority to verify the certification,” Genestoux says. But on the blockchain there is a specific address that links to the NFT to easily verify the status, he says.
With all of crypto’s advancements, the industry is still lacking when it comes to gender diversity. Between 2018 and 2021, 70% of new crypto hires were men and 30% were women, LinkedIn found. In comparison, during the same period, women made up 43% of finance hires in industries like banking and investment management.
If you’re wondering where the crypto hiring hot spots are in the U.S., San Francisco, Austin and New York are the top three locations. One thing’s for sure, although the crypto market is volatile and a work in process, it’s still appealing to many.
See you tomorrow.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Big deal
Effective managers are the key to retention, but the Great Resignation weighs heavily on them, according to Resign, Resigned, or Re-Sign?, a new report by UKG. About 2 in 5 managers are thinking of quitting themselves, including 53% of managers in the U.S. and the U.K. The top reason for wanting to resign is compensation (68%), followed by lack of career development opportunities (65%), and frustration with executive leadership, according to the report. UKG also found that 43% of the respondents who quit their jobs during the pandemic now admit they were actually better off at their old job. The findings are based on a global survey comparing responses of 1,950 employees who quit their jobs since March 2020, with 1,850 managers who had people on their team quit.
Going deeper
Investors are freaking out that Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers—but that’s not even its biggest problem, a new Fortune report delves into the implications of the company's Q1 2022 earnings report disclosing that its customer growth rate fell by half, year over year, from 13.6% to 6.7%.
Leaderboard
Atanas H. Atanasov was named EVP and CFO at Lummus Technology. Atanasov will succeed John Albanese, who is stepping down as CFO. Atanasov joins Lummus after previously serving as EVP, CFO and treasurer at Kraton Corporation. Prior to Kraton, he was CFO of Empire Petroleum Partners, LLC and CFO of NGL Energy Partners. He also spent nine years with GE Capital in various finance roles of increasing importance and responsibility.
Mark Spelker was named CFO at Digital Prime Technologies, a brokerage for financial institutions entering the crypto and digital asset space. Spelker has spent his career in the areas of financial reporting, SEC compliance, and financing activities. Previously, he was the EVP and CFO of Innodata Inc. Prior to Innodata, Spelker was an audit partner and national director of SEC Services at CohnReznick LLP for 20 years. He previously spent 15 years between KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Overheard
"Passing on higher costs is nobody’s idea of a good time, but it may be less painful when companies work with their customers to help address common problems and inflationary pain points."
— Asutosh Padhi, McKinsey & Company’s managing partner for North America, writes in a Fortune opinion piece about ways CEOs can successfully navigate inflation.
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