This recruitment company shared its blockchain and crypto network activity

• Many technology companies – including blockchain and crypto companies – have been hit by the economic downturn.
• Recruiting company i-Recruit told Insider what it has seen in blockchain and crypto recruiting.
• It shared quarterly statistics for crypto and blockchain traffic on job sites along with employer inquiries.

Leaked emails from Coinbase revealed in July that it was shutting down its US affiliate marketing program, crypto bank Celsius filed for bankruptcy the same month, and the crypto’s market cap fell 66% from its fall 2021 peak.

But hiring experts and engineers told Insider that amid this high-profile turmoil, the job market for crypto-related roles remains mature and there are still more vacancies than qualified job candidates in the field.

i-Recruit, an online recruitment agency, started its blockchain and cryptocurrency category in 2020, and it shared quarterly job website traffic along with inquiries from qualified employers looking to hire people.

The number of qualified employer inquiries mirrored stock market developments between the third and fourth quarter of 2021 and has fallen since. However, unlike dives, the unique workplace traffic of the crypto and blockchain categories skyrocketed during the same time period.

Jim Ortega, a senior account manager for i-Recruit, told Insider that the company has not received a single qualified employer lead in North America since the beginning of June. A qualified manager is a request that comes from a legally registered entity that currently employs a minimum of 5 full-time employees.

“This year started off strong, but the market experienced a sudden shift in February and new leads completely dried up due to a hiring freeze,” Ortega said, noting how i-Recruit has only successfully placed seven blockchain engineers this year so far as they placed 52 blockchain engineers through 2021, making it well under pace.

“In March, most of our active job orders were pulled at the request of clients and some even started withdrawing job offers from candidates who were waiting for the start date,” he added.

Ortega said the concern at the start of the year was about “candidate supply and quality”, but now the downturn has prompted i-Recruit to shift its resources to other IT industry teams – a reallocation that he doesn’t think will reverse until share price growth returns.

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