As Silicon Valley giants remain hesitant, their employees are widely flocking to the cryptocurrency industry

Authors: Daisuke Wakabayashi, Mike Isaac

Original Title: “The New Get-Rich-Faster Job in Silicon Valley: Crypto Start-Ups”

Translation by: Richard Lee, Chain Catcher

When Sandy Carter announced her departure from her role as vice president of Amazon Web Services this month, she revealed in a LinkedIn post that she would be joining a crypto technology company. She also included a recruitment link for the crypto start-up.

She said that within two days, more than 350 people clicked the link to apply for jobs at Unstoppable Domains, many of whom came from top internet companies. This start-up sells domain addresses on the blockchain network.

"It’s a perfect storm," Carter said. "The momentum we’re seeing in this space is just incredible."

Carter is part of a wave of executives and engineers leaving major tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple. Some executives and engineers, who earn millions, are now quitting to chase what they see as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They say the next big thing is crypto. It’s an all-encompassing term that includes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and products like NFTs that rely on blockchain.

Silicon Valley is now filled with stories of people who have struck it rich through seemingly absurd cryptocurrency investments (like Dogecoin, based on the Doge meme). Bitcoin has surged about 60% this year, and Ethereum’s value has increased more than fivefold.

But beyond this speculative frenzy, more and more of the tech industry’s brightest and best are seeing a transformative moment that comes around once every few decades. Through crypto technology, they see parallels in history: how personal computers and the internet were once ridiculed, only to disrupt the status quo and create a new generation of billionaires. According to data from PitchBook, which tracks private investments, investors poured more than $28 billion into global cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups this year, four times the total for all of 2020. NFT companies alone have raised over $3 billion.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of search engine start-up Neeva and a former Google executive, said, "The crypto space is making a huge noise," as he competes with crypto start-ups for talent. "It feels a bit like the 1990s vibe when the internet was born all over again. So early, so chaotic, so full of opportunity."

"The crypto space is making a huge noise," Neeva CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said outside the company's office in Mountain View, California. Jessica Chou / The New York Times
"Crypto" has also been rebranded as "Web 3," with skeptics claiming it may not be much different from past speculative bubbles (like the subprime mortgage crisis or the 17th-century tulip mania). They argue that this frenzy is largely driven by the desire to get rich quickly through trading assets, the foundations of which often seem to stem from internet jokes.
But an increasing number of true believers argue that cryptocurrency can change the world by creating a more decentralized internet that is not controlled by a handful of companies. While this potential has existed since Bitcoin's inception in 2009, products like NFTs only broke into the mainstream this year. This has accelerated the pace at which major tech companies are entering the cryptocurrency world.

This month, Lyft's CFO Brian Roberts left the ride-hailing company to join the popular crypto start-up OpenSea. "I’ve seen enough cycles and paradigm shifts that when something so significant emerges, I’m going to pay attention," said John Zimmer, Lyft's co-founder. "This is Day 1 of NFTs and their impact exploding." He wishes Roberts all the best in his new venture.

Last month, Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter to spend more time at his other company, Square. To pay homage to blockchain, Mr. Dorsey also renamed "Square" to "Block." He even changed the photos of Block executives to pixelated avatars to emphasize this change and built a software tool for others to create similar pixel avatars.

Additionally, David Marcus, head of cryptocurrency efforts at Facebook's parent company Meta, announced he would depart by the end of the year to follow his own "entrepreneurial DNA." Two people familiar with his plans said the 48-year-old Marcus intends to launch his own cryptocurrency project.

David Marcus and a Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

The allure of the crypto space has prompted some of the largest tech companies to scramble to retain employees. At Google, concerns about retaining employees (including preventing them from moving to crypto companies) have become so urgent that the topic has become part of the weekly agenda for CEO Sundar Pichai and his senior executives, according to two people familiar with the matter.

These sources also revealed that Google has begun offering additional stock options to some employees within the company who seem likely to be "poached." Google declined to comment.

Unlike Meta, which embraces crypto, Google has been reluctant to join the trend. However, when the company’s vice president Surojit Chatterjee left last year to become chief product officer at one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, Google employees witnessed the opportunities in cryptocurrency firsthand.

When Coinbase went public in April this year, Chatterjee’s shares in the company soared to over $600 million. He had only worked there for 14 months.

Such vast amounts of cryptocurrency wealth have created a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) among many tech workers, especially those who bought Bitcoin a few years ago and are now very wealthy.

"Back around 2017, people were mainly looking for investment opportunities," said Evan Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs, a start-up focused on building blockchain infrastructure projects. "Now people really want to build things."

Evan Cheng, 50, left Facebook in September after working there for six years, previously in its crypto project department, Novi. Mysten Labs has about 20 employees, most of whom work in areas like San Francisco, London, and New York, with about 80% coming from tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Netflix.

From left: Sam Blackshear, Evan Cheng, and Adeniyi Abiodun of Mysten Labs. Ian C. Bates / The New York Times
The number of companies focused on blockchain has surged, including cryptocurrency exchanges like Bitpanda, Gemini, and CoinList; NFT and collectibles companies like OpenSea and Dapper Labs; and infrastructure companies like Dfinity and Alchemy.

Concerns about control and monopolies among tech giants have also fueled this talent exodus. Many joined Google, Facebook, and other companies to create new things, only to encounter bureaucracy and discomfort working in a "big machine."

Those who abandon big company salaries do not have to wait as long for returns as they would at traditional tech start-ups.

While employees at tech start-ups typically accept lower salaries in hopes that the company's stock will one day soar, employees at crypto start-ups often gain "liquidity" or the ability to cash out their stock much sooner. Dan McCarthy, a recruiter at investment firm Paradigm, said they can often trade their company's tokens—or the underlying cryptocurrency supporting the start-up—for cash.

"In some cases, crypto start-ups can offer compensation packages comparable to those of tech giants because employees can easily convert the company's 'tokens'—or the underlying cryptocurrency supporting the start-up—into cash," Evan Cheng said.

Former Amazon vice president Sandy Carter said that people work at crypto companies not just for the money. Some are attracted by the spirit of Web3, which is dedicated to decentralizing power and decision-making. This is an alternative to how Google and Facebook dominate the internet by harvesting user data and selling targeted ads.

Carter said Amazon is very interested in Web3, but she is not recruiting there because she promised not to "poach" her former colleagues.

So, will the outflow of tech employees to the crypto space continue?

"The answer is definitely yes," she said. "It’s time to join it."