2023 Web3 Hiring Market Trends: Asia Surpasses Europe, OKX Hires More Than Binance
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2023 Web3 Hiring Market Trends: Asia Surpasses Europe, OKX Hires More Than Binance
This article will analyze global Web3 hiring trends to provide comprehensive insights into the Web3 market.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy JAY JO AND YOON LEE
Translation: TechFlow
Recently, Tiger Research released statistics on the 2023 global Web3 market recruitment trends. The article provides an in-depth exploration of the employment landscape within the Web3 sector in 2023, analyzing various related trends and opportunities, offering valuable insights and information for job seekers and companies interested in the Web3 industry. TechFlow has translated the full report.
Summary
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The global Web3 recruitment market in 2023 saw a significant decline compared to 2021/2022. Regulatory pressure from the U.S. SEC on cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly Binance, had a major impact on hiring activity.
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Regionally, North America remains highly influential, while Asia surpassed Europe to rise into third place. This is primarily due to increased hiring by centralized exchanges (CEX) in Singapore and Hong Kong. As the Asian market continues to grow, this gap is expected to widen further.
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In terms of sectors, CEXs posted the highest number of job openings, accounting for up to 30% of monthly listings. This indicates that CEXs remain the most mature business model in the Web3 market.
Global Web3 Market Recruitment Trends in 2023
A company’s job postings serve as an indicator of its strategic implementation and specific industry demand, helping predict future market activity. In this article, we analyze global Web3 recruitment trends to provide comprehensive insights into the Web3 market.
Global Web3 market recruitment in 2023 remained below half the levels seen during the boom years of 2021/2022. The market has not yet fully recovered and continues to face stringent regulatory challenges, especially in the U.S. and Europe. However, recruitment numbers showed an upward trend in the first half of 2023, indicating signs of recovery.
Since June 2023, the number of job postings has dropped by 50%, likely due to lawsuits filed by the U.S. SEC against Binance, Coinbase, and others, creating headwinds across the entire web3 ecosystem. Additionally, Binance’s direct regulatory scrutiny in Europe and other regions led to restructuring and reduced hiring at the exchange that previously dominated recruitment. Binance reported 288 new positions in May 2023 but only 27 in June—a nearly 90% drop. Given that cryptocurrency exchanges account for 30% of all Web3 market hiring, their contraction directly impacted overall Web3 recruitment trends.
Since then, the second half of 2023 has seen relatively stable trends overall. However, with surging cryptocurrency trading volumes and anticipation around Bitcoin ETF approvals, Web3 market hiring is expected to increase in 2024. As market recovery gains momentum, Web3 companies are anticipated to actively expand operations and recruit talent again. 2024 is expected to bring more challenges and innovation opportunities than 2023.
Regional Web3 Market Recruitment Trends in 2023 (Monthly Cumulative)
In the 2023 regional breakdown of Web3 market recruitment trends, the rankings by region are as follows:
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North America
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Remote Work
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Asia
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Europe
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Middle East
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Latin America
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Africa
North America remains a dominant market, accounting for 40% of all global job postings. Notably, Asia's recruitment activity surpassed Europe. Asia accounted for approximately 20% of all job postings, while Europe accounted for about 15%, a significant difference. As the global Web3 market increasingly focuses on Asia, we expect the gap between these two regions to widen over time.
2023 Asia Web3 Market Industry Recruitment Trends
In the 2023 Asia-Pacific Web3 recruitment trends, the top regions for hiring were Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and Australia. Particularly, Singapore, as a financial hub in Asia, maintains a strong presence in the Web3 market thanks to its business-friendly environment. This year, Singapore strengthened regulations to reduce risks in the Web3 ecosystem, but due to proactive support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in developing and nurturing Web3 technologies—along with relatively clear regulatory guidance—uncertainties in the market have been addressed, leading many Web3 companies to emerge and participate actively.
Hong Kong ranks as the second-largest recruitment market in Asia, accounting for about 20% of all positions. Its opening of the cryptocurrency market in June 2023 likely triggered active hiring. India accounts for approximately 13% of all Asian job postings. The country possesses the world’s third-largest Web3 talent pool, attracting many global firms. However, due to the lack of institutional frameworks for cryptocurrencies—including high taxation on crypto assets—domestic hiring in India itself has not surged. Instead, it is speculated that Indian tech talent has left the country to join global markets. Finally, with the revival of its fintech sector, Australia is seeing growth in various financial solution providers, and Web3 companies related to financial infrastructure are actively recruiting.
South Korea and Japan maintain limited visibility in the Asian market. This can be attributed to their tendency to prioritize hiring local talent familiar with domestic business culture. As a result, recruitment is more likely conducted through local platforms rather than global ones, which may explain the limited hiring figures observed for Japan and South Korea.
2023 Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchange Hiring Rankings
The ranking for hiring among centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in 2023 is:
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OKX
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Binance
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Crypto.com
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Gemini
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Kraken
OKX, the world’s third-largest spot exchange, was until recently the most active recruiter among exchanges, aiming to compete with Binance and Upbit. OKX’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific region has been particularly notable, covering markets including Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Overall, due to sanctions from multiple regulators including the U.S. SEC, cryptocurrency exchange hiring slowed down in 2023. Nevertheless, crypto exchanges are still considered the most mature business model in the Web3 market, and hiring activities are expected to continue. Moreover, Binance’s position as the global leader has begun to waver. It is anticipated that various regional exchanges will emerge and compete for market share.
Positive Hiring Trends Among Web3 Infrastructure Companies
The next most active hiring category is “infrastructure.” Contrary to expectations for the Asia Web3 market, recruitment remains largely concentrated in North America and Europe. However, the shift toward Asia is also significant. Solana, Ripple, Avalanche, and Arbitrum all conducted hiring in Asia during 2023. With increasing business opportunities in the region, more hiring is expected. Polygon, in particular, has launched large-scale recruitment across Asia following collaborations with several Asian companies.
Other Notable Web3 Hiring Trends
There were other interesting Web3 hiring trends in 2023. First, opportunities in Vietnam’s market are rising. Previously a leading P2E market, Vietnam maintained low hiring levels after the 2021 boom. However, global Web3 projects from Vietnam such as Kyber Network and Sky Mavis have recently started hiring again and are preparing for another takeoff in 2024.
Stablecoin issuers were also actively hiring in 2023. Both Circle and Paxos saw sharp increases in hiring, growing 4-fold and 9-fold respectively compared to the previous year. This aligns with both companies’ aggressive efforts in recent years to issue stablecoins and establish a strong position in the global market.
Circle has begun expanding its hiring reach across Asia. After partnering with Singapore’s Grab, Circle is now extending into Hong Kong and Taiwan. This move aligns with the opening of cryptocurrency markets in the region, which are expected to become highly liquid and active. The company also sees abundant business opportunities in the region, where many jurisdictions have already established or are currently developing regulatory frameworks for stablecoins.
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