Crypto Hiring Slumps
Plus, NYSE unveils plans for 24/7 trading
Denis Omelchenko & Olivia Capozzalo
January 19, 2026
gm Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- Crypto hiring is off to a weak start this year, with early January data showing a sharp drop in new job postings compared with this time last year.
In other news:
- NYSE announces 24/7 platform
- Crypto markets correct on tariff uncertainty
- ZachXBT flags major social engineering scam
- FEATURE: Crypto Twitter’s decline doesn’t tell the whole story
- EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Inside Stripe’s crypto strategy with Privy CEO
The Defiant’s 2025 in review:
- How Digital Asset Treasuries Went Mainstream in 2025
- RWAs Became Wall Street’s Gateway to Crypto in 2025
- Prediction Markets Expand from DeFi Niche to Global News Sources
- Stablecoins Became Crypto’s First Mainstream Use Case in 2025
- Looking Ahead: The Biggest Names in Crypto Predict New Bitcoin Highs and a Tokenization Boom in 2026
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
Stellar: The Proving Ground for Real-World Privacy
The latest Stellar upgrade, X-Ray, delivers zero-knowledge cryptography that lets developers build privacy into their apps—protecting what matters while keeping Stellar radically open, trusted, and ready for real-world finance.
We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $92,998 | -2.29 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,210.69 | -3.93 % |
 | BNB | $925.01 | -2.68 % |
 | XRP | $2.02 | -1.82 % |
 | Solana | $133.9 | -5.81 % |
Today’s Big Story
Crypto Job Market Cools Fast in Early 2026
Crypto hiring is starting 2026 on a weak note, with early January data showing a sharp drop in new job postings compared with this time last year.
In a Jan. 15 post on X, William Burleson, a partner at crypto recruiting firm Up Top, noted that December only saw a few isolated layoffs and hiring held up reasonably well through Q4 2025.
But things slowed quickly once the calendar flipped. Looking at key crypto-only job boards — and excluding company career pages or tools like Lever and Ashby — Burleson found just 85 to 90 unique new roles posted in the first two weeks of January.
The number of crypto jobs since Q1 2025 vs. January 2026. Source: X
That’s a big contrast to January 2025. Back then, the first two weeks were running at roughly 38 new jobs per day. So far this year, it’s closer to 6.5 a day, putting hiring activity down about 80% year over year.
The mix of roles helps explain what’s going on. About 60% of postings are technical or engineering roles, with the rest split across non-technical and go-to-market jobs, Burleson says. Most of them skew senior, with staff, senior, lead and head-of roles making up around two-thirds of openings.
Crypto hiring website web3career confirms this, noting in its “Intelligence Report 2025” that the job market now has a “pronounced experience bias that creates unique advancement opportunities for mid-level professionals ready to position themselves strategically.”
Experience requirements are also high. Burleson says most roles ask for at least five years of experience, jumping to seven or more for leadership positions. As for what teams are actually hiring for, the focus is pretty narrow, with roughly 60% of roles coming from infrastructure teams, stablecoin projects, and payments or fintech-style startups.
Well-known crypto projects that have implemented widespread layoffs this month alone include Mantra, Polygon Labs (reportedly) — following its major M&A move — and Berachain, which said in its year-end update it had laid off “most of our retail-focused marketing team.”
Bitcoin, meanwhile, is down 8% on the year, and that certainly can’t be helping things.
Denis, staff reporter at The Defiant
Forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe for daily insights and curated news from The Defiant team, Monday-Saturday. It’s free.
🎬WATCH
Liquid Staking Explained: From ETH to XRP with Firelight | Crypto 101 [SPONSORED]
In this episode, we explore liquid staking, how it works, why it was created, and how it’s expanding beyond traditional proof-of-stake blockchains. We start with staking fundamentals, explain why locked capital became a problem, and show how liquid staking tokens (LSTs) unlock new utility across DeFi.
How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, chief product officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.
We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Top News in the Past 24 Hours
- NYSE Eyes Private Blockchains to Launch 24/7 Tokenized Stock TradingThe New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is working on a new digital platform that would let people trade tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds around the clock, seven days a week.Why it matters: Tokenized stocks have seen a huge jump in popularity in the past year.
- Bitcoin Drops Sharply Below $93K After Stable Weekend All the top-10 crypto assets by market capitalization are in the red today following a sharp drop Sunday after, as markets digest President Trump’s EU tariff threats over Greenland. Why it matters: Analysts note that despite the tariff uncertainty, “implied volatility in both Bitcoin and Ethereum has only marginally edged higher.”
- ZachXBT Highlights $282M Theft of Bitcoin and Litecoin in Hardware Wallet Scam On-chain investigator ZachXBT said a victim lost more than $282 million worth of Bitcoin and Litecoin from their hardware wallet in a social engineering scam. Why it matters: The case highlights how even hardware wallets can be risky if someone is fooled into giving up access or approving a bad transaction.
Trending on The Defiant
- Bags Launchpad Activity Surges After GAS Token Soars 700%
- Base App Pivots to ‘Trading-First’ Six Months After SocialFi Rebrand
- Crypto Cards Rival Stablecoin Transfers as Spending Tops $18 Billion: Artemis
- It’s Not Just Crypto Twitter That’s Dead — Experts Say Broader Retail Interest Is Waning
- Bitcoin Slips Below $95K as Analysts Flag Make-Or-Break Zone
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
Free newsletters
Good reporting. Delivered.
Choose your coverage: crypto and DeFi, the future of finance, or both.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
