Wall Street banks on a hunt for tech staff laid-off during crypto rout

After a number of cryptocurrency companies were forced to lay off a large chunk of their workforce as the result of a major crypto market meltdown, the laid-off staff now seem to be in high demand elsewhere.

In fact, Wall Street banks seem to be scrambling to hire the discarded technology workers, including those that were among 1,100 staff let go by the largest U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase, Bloomberg’s Aisha S Gani, William Shaw, and Anna Irrera reported on September 16.

Open positions for crypto talent

Among the banking giants advertising for crypto-related positions is Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), which is scouting for a vice president to work as a digital assets software engineer, a vice president for its digital assets legal group, as well as an associate for digital assets in consumer wealth management and private wealth management.

Furthermore, JPMorgan’s (NYSE: JPM) $2.7 trillion asset and wealth management business arm is in need of a person to supervise its blockchain strategy, including crypto and digital tokens, as well as looking to fill the position of a product manager (among others) in its blockchain network Onyx Digital Assets which covers debt and equities.

On top of that, Citi (NYSE: C) is hiring a director-level “digital asset risk manager for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and decentralized finance,” specifically looking for applicants with experience in decentralized finance (DeFi) initiatives and technology firms, in addition to traditional finance.

As the head of talent acquisition at one of the leading British challenger banks, Starling Bank, Charlotte Richards sees it, there is an “incredibly strong” competition for tech talent. She explained that:

“Software engineers with the right experience and the right mindset who suddenly find themselves available are likely to be in great demand.”

As a reminder, the prolonged bear market wreaked havoc across the crypto landscape in the past months, melting $370 billion from the global crypto market cap in a week, wiping 25 digital asset exchanges in June, and resulting in mass layoffs and bankruptcies, as Finbold reported.