Financial Firms, Startups Compete for Crypto Talent

Despite sluggish prices for bitcoin and other digital assets, it is clear that institutional investors are still intrigued by cryptocurrency. Visa recently announced that it was growing its crypto team, with five new hires and placements in the last two weeks, while Goldman Sachs plans to expand the operations of its newly rebooted crypto trading desk. 

In the latest example, Fidelity Investments plans to increase staff in its digital asset arm by 70% through hiring 100 workers to work at its offices in Dublin, Boston and Salt Lake City, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

One reason for the sustained enthusiasm: Although the price of bitcoin has been nearly halved since hitting a high of more than $63,000 in April, the cryptocurrency is still up more than 250% year over year. And it isn’t just about bitcoin. Fidelity Digital Assets CEO Tom Jessop told Bloomberg that part of the impetus behind the company’s hiring spree is that it plans to focus on other cryptocurrencies such as ether.