Big banks get ‘caught in the game’ of hiring crypto talent

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The demand for cryptocurrency and blockchain talent is skyrocketing, as big banks take a big leap in the still unregulated space. According to LinkedIn, US job postings for “crypto” and “blockchain” positions climbed 615% in August, compared to the same period last year.

“We see this in the big banks and it’s really the drastic change over the last few years,” Devin Banerjee, LinkedIn business and finance editor, told Yahoo Finance. “The big banks were the ones that hesitated and scratched their heads about cryptocurrency adoption and the need for crypto talent, but now they’re stepping into the game.”

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has publicly expressed his doubts about bitcoin (BTC-USD), the largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $ 1.17 trillion, as late as last month in a interview, calling it “some fool’s gold” that has “no intrinsic value”, which regulators “would regulate the hell”. Yet despite Dimon’s skepticism, the bank began offering customers access to half a dozen crypto funds in July.

Recruitment of crypto talent by large financial services firms increased 40% in the first half of 2021, compared to the same period last year, according to data from LinkedIn. The site predicts that these companies are on the verge of adding more than three times as many workers experienced in digital assets to their payrolls in 2021 than in 2015.

JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, UBS, Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Barclays are the top financial institutions hiring the most crypto talent for a mix of roles ranging from sales professionals to employees designing crypto offerings for consumers and engineers creating blockchain platforms for banks.

Photo from: STRF / STAR MAX / IPx 2021 10/2/21 Mastercard will allow merchants to accept crypto payments this year, allowing digital currency directly over the network.

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Another sign of Wall Street’s wide adoption of crypto, the first bitcoin ETF, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), began trading last month.

“There is a technology that must be built [for big banks], this underlying blockchain ledger technology. Software engineers are therefore in great demand. Crypto is also a commodity that needs to be sold, marketed, and explained to clients and customers, so the roles of sales and marketing are also increasing, ”Banerjee said.

Security posts are also in high demand, Banerjee says. “Security is so important around crypto assets. It’s customer assets, customer money that they move around the world, so security architects are also roles that we see increasing.

While banks offer crypto experts pay increases that can be 50% higher than the pay of their peers in non-crypto-related jobs, operating in a regulated environment can be a bigger barrier to attracting talent. .

“Banks have a lot of regulatory responsibilities and burdens,” Banerjee said. “They want innovative talent, but they want to make sure that talent is used to working within the limits of existing regulatory frameworks, because banks don’t want to go outside those limits.”

While big bank compensation packages can be appealing, crypto experts can be well served by considering these tips before taking the plunge.

“If you are that job seeker, you have to recognize that you are entering the legacy world of finance to work on the future of finance,” Banerjee said. “It’s a little ironic, so you want to do your due diligence. “

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