Executive "Great Migration": How can crypto companies become the ideal habitat for top talent?

Author: Chandler, Foresight News

A company's recruitment can reveal the actual progress of its strategic execution while reflecting the changing trajectory of industry demand, thus allowing for predictions about the future market's activity level and development potential.

According to a report released by Tiger Research, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the Bitcoin spot ETF in January 2024, the number of job openings in the global Web3 market began to increase significantly. With rising expectations for market recovery, recruitment activities became relatively active.

In the first half of 2024, the number of Web3 job openings increased by approximately 20% year-on-year, reflecting a significant rise in overall industry expectations compared to last year. The increase in job openings mainly came from crypto ETF management companies and exchanges.

In the first half of the year, the Web3 job openings in the Asian market were most active in Singapore, India, and Hong Kong. Notably, the number of recruits in Singapore grew by about 23% compared to the second half of 2023.

With the significant growth in recruitment demand in the crypto industry, the appeal of the Web3 sector is gradually extending to senior executives in Web2, forming a new trend of cross-industry talent influx. Senior managers from traditional internet giants are being attracted to Web3, immersing themselves in this vibrant field and bringing the mature experiences of Web2 into the innovative development of Web3.

For example, former Global Head of Strategy for Asset and Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs, Peter Mintzberg, joined Grayscale as CEO; Dan Odell, former Vice President of Global Product Management at Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, joined ConsenSys as Chief Financial Officer (CFO); Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 hired former Citigroup executive Sean Glennan as CFO; crypto custody firm Copper appointed former Goldman Sachs Managing Director Amar Kuchinad as CEO, succeeding Dmitry Tokarev; and former Sony and BeInCrypto executive Vugar Usi Zade joined Bitget as Chief Operating Officer, among others.

Meanwhile, there is an increasing frequency of management movement among top institutions within Web3, with a significant increase in executive "talent migration," deepening the liquidity and synergy of management teams in the crypto industry, further accelerating the competition and maturation of the Web3 sector. Binance has become a prominent "talent magnet," attracting executives from various companies and backgrounds to join its team.

According to statistics from @_FORAB, in addition to OKX executives moving to Binance, former Kraken CFOs, former OV venture capital investment managers, and CMC content creators are also flowing into Binance, further enriching its management team.

Former executives from Binance are also continuously moving to other platforms, such as Bitget, forming a multi-directional cross-company talent migration network. For instance, current Bitget Chief Legal Officer Hon Ng was the former head of policy and legal at Binance, and Chief Business Officer Min Lin was the former global director of understanding and development at Binance, among others.

This flow of elites and knowledge is mutually reinforcing, driving the industry towards maturity more rapidly and endowing the crypto industry with stronger adaptability and innovation.

What kind of attraction lies behind this wave of migration? What makes these top talents flock to the crypto industry? We hope to explore the characteristics that make the crypto industry an ideal destination for senior management talent, analyze the traits of crypto companies that can attract top talent, and reflect on the industry development trends and corporate attractiveness factors behind this cross-industry talent migration.

Good Birds Choose the Right Trees to Perch

The choice of top talent is akin to selecting a forest to inhabit. Some chase high salaries, some value freedom, while others hope to align with a vision that changes the world.

As the saying goes, "Good birds choose the right trees to perch," these "good birds" flying into the crypto field will not settle for just any place.

According to Data.ai, the top three centralized exchange apps by downloads in October globally were Binance, OKX, and Bitget, with Binance achieving 4.06 million downloads, followed by OKX and Bitget with 2.2 million and 1.92 million downloads, respectively. Who truly represents the enticing "golden branches and silver leaves"?

In this competition for talent, what are the employment philosophies of these major crypto companies?

Binance: Hardcore as Core Value

• Hardcore: In the official release "How to Become an Excellent Binance Employee?", Binance emphasizes "hardcore" as its core value.
• Adaptability: A key characteristic of Binance employees is their ability to adapt to internal job rotations and cope with uncertainty while delivering the highest quality to meet user expectations.
• Stress Resistance: Due to the fast-paced work environment and significant decision-making impact, Binance employees need to work under high pressure. If you cannot handle stress, or if sustained pressure negatively affects your work performance, then our work environment may not be suitable for you.

OKX: Adhering to Basic Principles

• Team First: Proposes building a global team with a decentralized management philosophy, where the collaboration model under a decentralized structure is simple, and each department and position has clear work objectives.
• Integrity First: The blockchain industry is closely tied to money; only by resisting temptation and doing the right thing can one gain ultimate value recognition.
• Self-Driven: Given that the industry is in its early stages, only those who maintain genuine curiosity and optimism about the industry and are willing to deeply understand it can drive themselves further.

Bitget: Dual Drive of Results Orientation and Incentive Principles

• Results-Oriented: Bitget emphasizes pragmatism and results orientation, focusing on candidates who can bring substantial results to the company. At the same time, the company advocates for decentralization, ensuring that employees who achieve results are fully empowered and rewarded.
• Open Communication: Management emphasizes open communication and directly addressing issues, encouraging team members to provide direct feedback and resolve problems rather than avoiding them or escalating them through layers, thus achieving efficient and direct internal communication to promote continuous development in a rapidly changing market.
• Future Potential: Focuses on candidates' adaptability and learning ability, innovation and forward-thinking, global perspective and collaboration skills, risk management and compliance thinking, as well as team spirit.

In fact, beyond factors such as salary, company culture, and career freedom, the platform's growth momentum and its continuous breakthroughs in technology, products, and markets are rare sources of attraction.

Choosing a platform with strong momentum means having the opportunity to participate in more projects in a shorter time, face more challenges, and gain greater career growth space. Bitget, with its rapid expansion and impressive market performance, is becoming one of the best habitats in the eyes of "good birds."

What Brought About the "Migration Tide"

More Than Just a Job

In the development of any industry or technology, the S-curve principle is ubiquitous. After reaching the limit point of the first curve, the market will show new development directions and open up the second curve of growth. The stage of innovative technology brewing is a very brief yet opportunity-rich window.

From traditional financial giants to tech pioneers, many senior executives are leaving the familiar "first curve" to dive into the early-stage "second curve" innovation field of the crypto industry.

This wave of migration is not coincidental; it is the best proof of trust and expectation for the crypto industry as a breakthrough path of the second curve.

Reconstruction of Financial Incentives

Of course, the attraction of the crypto industry is also reflected in high salary returns, but more so in innovative compensation designs and strong value-added potential.

The compensation structure of traditional enterprises mainly consists of fixed salaries and annual bonuses, with limited growth potential. In contrast, the crypto industry binds executives' personal interests deeply with the long-term development of the enterprise through options, token incentives, and long-term dividends based on platform profits.

Dragonfly Capital conducted a survey of 49 crypto companies in 2023, where most strongly considered adopting tokens, with only 14% of companies explicitly stating they would never launch tokens. As funding amounts, stages, and scales increase, companies are more likely to plan and launch tokens.

Attraction of Corporate Culture

The uniqueness of corporate culture is one of the important factors driving the movement of senior management talent. In the crypto industry, the differences in management styles among different platforms are significant, becoming an important hallmark for attracting talent.

In contrast, Binance tends to favor rapid decision-making and high innovation, while Bitget's management style is profoundly influenced by the founder's "decisive and resolute" approach, forming a results-oriented corporate culture. Coinbase, on the other hand, places greater emphasis on compliance and transparency, attracting managers with different styles.

Market Volatility and Talent Redistribution

The volatility of the crypto market and the wave of layoffs have further exacerbated the mobility of executives in the industry. During market downturns, many companies choose to lay off staff to cut costs, including a significant number of executives. For example, Binance.US laid off two-thirds of its employees in March due to an SEC lawsuit, Kraken laid off about 15% in October, and ConsenSys announced a 20% layoff due to macroeconomic pressures and increased legal costs. In such a large environment, some high-end talents choose to turn to platforms with greater development potential.

High-quality crypto companies typically demonstrate stronger risk resistance and adaptability amid market fluctuations, maintaining stability during crises and seizing new opportunities during industry restructuring, which also provides a more ideal working environment and development platform for executives seeking long-term growth.

Will You Follow This Web3 Ticket?

In summary, crypto companies are becoming an ideal destination for senior talent, a trend stemming from their rapidly growing market scale and innovative technologies, and also reflecting the unique attractiveness of the crypto industry in terms of management openness and incentive mechanisms.

For top talent, joining the crypto industry is not merely about "boarding the Web3 ship"; it requires discernment. This choice needs to be made thoughtfully. Senior talents must possess profound strategic insight when making career decisions to identify companies with long-term strategies and execution capabilities, ensuring that their career development can maximize long-term returns and stability in this emerging field.