Latest in Crypto Hiring: OKX, Bitget Among Companies Boosting Headcount

Though companies such as Crypto.com, BlockFi, Coinbase and Gemini have recently revealed plans to cut staff or slow hiring, others continue sharing their intentions to grow their headcount. 

Demand for talent is strong for firms looking to expand. A recent analysis of Google search data by Cryptojobslist.com found that searches for “remote crypto jobs” grew by 560% worldwide this month.

Crypto exchange OKX announced last week that it plans to increase headcount by 30%, growing by 1,500 people to about 5,000 over the next 12 months.

“Seeing people in our community losing their jobs is quite unsettling,” an OKX spokesperson told Blockworks. “Our focus right now is to see if we can be the home for the incredible talent in our industry who may have been impacted by the recent layoffs.”

The exchange is targeting professionals in product design, engineering and marketing as its main focus shifts to building a leading brand in the space.  

OKX has seen a slight increase in applications since the onset of the bear market. It received more applications in April than in any previous month of the year, and even more were submitted in May, according to the company representative.

“This is a great time to hire talent who are coming to the industry not just for the hype but rather because of their pure passion for building,” the spokesperson added.

Derivatives exchange Bitget is also seeing an influx of applicants, most likely due to headcount cuts from other companies, Managing Director Gracy Chen said. 

Bitget revealed earlier this week that it seeks to double its workforce to 1,000 people by the end of the year. The company is focused on filling operations, product development and customer services roles across regions in which it has seen growth. 

A crypto winter gives the firm “a golden window” to achieve low-cost, high-quality growth, Chen explained. Historical data has proven that with each market downturn, the recurring bull run will bring about even stronger and positive results, she added.

“Oftentimes, a company’s success is very visible during a bull market, however, the foundation was likely established during a bear market,” Chen told Blockworks. “Regardless of the market conditions, it was a pressing business need for us to push forward with our hiring plans to pave way for new developments to come.”

A look at this week’s hires

Web3 advertising provider Permission.io appointed longtime Facebook executive Thomas Shin as its CEO. 

Shin has spent 28 years in the digital advertising space at companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Yahoo!, MediaMath and Efficient Frontier, which was acquired by Adobe. Most recently, he was head of the Americas business at mobile programmatic startup Moloco. 

Permission.io founder and former CEO Charlie Silver is set to become executive chairman.

Crypto exchange OKX brought aboard Rachel Conlan to be its global head of brand marketing and partnerships.

Conlan is responsible for the company’s brand and marketing efforts through partnerships with Manchester City FC, Tribeca Festival and McLaren Racing. The latter collaboration, revealed in May, came around the time OKX hired chief marketing officer Haider Rafique from competing exchange OKcoin.  

Conlan previously led the global partnerships team at international sports and entertainment agency CAA Sports and also worked as global chief marketing operations officer for communications group Havas.

Hut 8 Mining named Aniss Amdiss as its chief legal officer. He will lead Hut 8’s legal and governance portfolios and serve as corporate secretary, reporting to CEO Jaime Leverton. 

Prior to joining Hut 8, Amdiss served as vice president of legal, general counsel and corporate secretary at healthcare services company Greenbrook TMS Inc.

Digital asset custody company Digivault has added Greg Vosper as its chief commercial officer to drive the firm’s business development, partnerships and sales strategy. 

Vosper was most recently the director of strategic partnerships at Zodia Custody, a crypto custody solution built by Standard Chartered’s venture arm and asset management giant Northern Trust. He was also previously the lead of new client development and sales at CME Group and a business advisory and tax committee manager at Nexia International.

Private markets investment management firm Hamilton Lane hired Victor Jung to its newly created head of digital assets role. 

The company had about $900 billion in assets under management and supervision — $106 billion in discretionary assets and $795 billion in advisory assets — as of March 31.

Jung was most recently head of distribution partners and liquid private markets for the Asia-Pacific region at Partners Group, where he oversaw business development and led onboarding for the firm’s wealth technology platforms.

Mark Aubrey is set to join blockchain gaming company Catheon Gaming as its co-CEO on July 11.

Aubrey joins the company from Activision Blizzard, the creators of games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft; there he worked as managing director and head of its Asia-Pacific arm. Before that, Aubrey was a marketing director at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

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