Revolut Plans To Increase Crypto Staff By 20% During Bear Market

British fintech firm Revolut plans to increase crypto-focused staff by 20% across the UK, US and Europe over the next six months.

It is now advertising for 13 industry-related roles, including software engineers, crypto lawyers and financial compliance and crime prevention experts.

The long-term crypto game

In accordance Bloomberg, Revolut has already hired 43 crypto-focused employees in 2022, increasing the crypto team’s headcount by ~200%. Across all teams, the company has 230 open positions.

The hiring push is meant to help Revolut expand its cryptocurrency offerings. It currently serves as an exchange platform for trading over 80 digital assets, and for earning crypto by rounding up spare cash on daily purchases. It also allows users to earn when learn about cryptocurrency on its platform.

On Wednesday, the app added 22 new cryptos to its trading service — including APE coin.

“We view crypto as a long-term play and remain positive on the crypto industry,” said Revolut’s crypto daily manager Emil Urmanshin. He said crypto currently accounts for 5-10% of Revolut’s global revenue.

The company was launched back in 2015 and became popular as an affordable and user-friendly foreign exchange service. Activity in this area slowed during the Covid-19 outbreak due to travel restrictions and reduced spending.

However, the firm’s crypto and equity businesses boomed in the meantime. UK customers buying cryptocurrency increased by 290% between July 2020 and July 2021, and by a further 30% in July 2022. Transactions between each period increased by 800% and 50% respectively.

“Although there has been turmoil, interest in crypto assets has increased and we still have more clients trading crypto than in July 2021,” Urmanshin said.

In July 2021 Revolut was appreciated to $33 billion, making it the UK’s most valuable Fintech firm.

Construction under the bear

Revolut stands out from other industry players such as Coin base and Open sea, which were forced to lay off 18% and 25% of employees, respectively, when the bear market took effect in June. Both firms admitted to over-hiring in 2021 when trading activity was higher in both organisations.

However, Binance – the world’s largest crypto exchange – played a conservative hand during the bull market in preparation for a decline. CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the company is hiring for over 2,000 positions in June.