Crypto hiring is starting to pick up again even as token prices remain far away from their highs and broader sentiment stays muted.
Hiring in the crypto space appears to be picking up, even as prices and sentiment remain weak.
In a thread on X, Zack Skelly, head of talent at Dragonfly Capital, outlined how teams are approaching hiring into 2026, pointing to steady demand in areas like engineering, AI and security. He wrote:
“Our base case for 2026: flat to modestly up, led by engineering, AI/data, and security. Consolidation continues. Across all scenarios — bull, base, or bear — this is a build-quality year.”
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Engineering Roles Lead Crypto Hiring
According to Skelly, crypto hiring is not accelerating broadly, but shifting toward specific roles tied to output and execution.
“Engineering, AI/ML, and security are too supply-constrained to restart from zero every cycle,” Skelly said, noting that companies are keeping “always-on pipelines” for hard-to-fill positions even when hiring slows elsewhere.
At the same time, expectations from candidates are changing, as candidates “want runway clarity, defined ownership in the first 30-60 days, and transparent upside mechanics,” Skellly wrote.
Taken together, the signals point to a hiring market that’s holding up in key technical areas rather than expanding across the board. As Skelly put it, “across all scenarios — bull, base, or bear — this is a build-quality year.”
Read also: Only 32% of Tokens Rise After Listing on Top Crypto Exchanges: Data
