Top United States-based banks and financial institutions have filled more than 1,000 positions for crypto experts in the past three years.
According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, financial institutions are offering significant bonuses to attract crypto talent, with human resource consultant Johnson Associates estimating that crypto positions pay salaries that are between 20% and 30% higher than comparable positions unrelated to digital currency.
The firm added that many senior crypto roles benefit an up-to-50% bump in salary over comparable positions, with managing director Alan Johnson concluding:
“The banks can’t run the risk that their clients go to another bank to do these services, so they need to build up.”
Research firm Revelio Labs analyzed 287 crypto-related hirings from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Fidelity and JPMorgan Chase — the four largest employers of digital asset talent on the professional social networking site LinkedIn. Revelio concluded that crypto specialists enjoy a 9% pay rise over their banking co-workers on average.
In October, LinkedIn reported that site-wide job listings for positions relating to crypto and blockchain have jumped 615% since August 2020.
Related: Amazon job posting hints company’s Web Services are preparing to adopt crypto
Bank of America established a dedicated crypto research team in July, with the division’s Alkesh Shah stating, “The industry and the technology became too big to ignore.”
Morgan Stanley also launched a cryptocurrency research team in September, further signaling that top U.S. banks are seeking to attract crypto talent.