According to the report, 30% of those 190,000 crypto workers reside in the US. Anders Helseth, vice president at K33 Research, believes that this trend will remain the same, with the US being “a center of gravity for the crypto industry”.
K33 Research, a unit of the K33 crypto brokerage firm consolidating multiple portfolio companies, has released a report called “The Emerging Crypto Industry” to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the entire global crypto industry. As revealed in the report, the crypto industry employs as many as 190,000 individuals, they are working in approximately 10,000 companies with an estimated value of $180 billion, as of July 2023.
Notably, 60% of all crypto workers, or 62,400 people, are employed by exchanges and brokerages. Further, 26% (or 48,500 people) are involved in financial services. Blockchain analytics and registration of mining companies employ nearly 40,000 employees. Finally, 12,000 jobs (or 6%) have been found in gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The K33 report has also mentioned an “other” category with 24,800 jobs.
According to the report, 30% of those 190,000 crypto workers reside in the US. Anders Helseth, vice president at K33 Research, believes that this trend will remain the same, with the US being “a center of gravity for the crypto industry”.
Anders Helseth stated:
“My best guess is that the crypto industry will continue to be US centric.”
Helseth explained it by tech knowledge and funding access in the US.
Crypto Employment Across Regions
Speaking of the spread and distribution of crypto jobs worldwide, North America, the United States, and Canada are dominating. In Europe, where the regulators have been processing with the MiCA framework, 24% of crypto jobs have been reported by K33. One-third of crypto employment in the region, or 13,000 positions, accounts for the United Kingdom which is no longer a member of the EU.
In South Asia, India is the leading employer in the crypto industry, with 20% of the regional workforce. An estimated 11.5% of Indians are crypto users as of 2023. The second-largest employer in Asia is China, with 15% of the region’s crypto workforce, despite its hostile stance on crypto. Given China’s ban on cryptocurrency since 2021, many would assume that the country would be behind in blockchain technology. However, the country is currently doing a lot of research on blockchain and its use cases. China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has approved the establishment of the National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center (NBTIC) which will focus on developing software, hardware, and fundamental theory on use cases that can benefit China’s economy.
Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, and Switzerland have been renowned as crypto-friendly destinations where the crypto regulation is clear and simple. However, they do not compete with the US in the number of crypto companies and crypto workers. According to Anders Helseth, companies are more likely to locate in these nations, but not their employees.
About 4% of the industry’s workforce resides in Africa, with Nigeria and South Africa being the major crypto hubs. The region has seen an increasing level of crypto adoption. Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by over 1200% between 2020 and 2021. However, there are some challenges to widespread adoption on the continent. Among them, there are a lack of regulatory clarity and a lack of technological infrastructure in many African countries.
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