Is Web3 the next job move for finance and tech pros?
19:22, 24 February 2022
Christine Moy recently left JPMorgan for a career in Web3 - Photo: LinkedIn JPMorgan Managing Director Christine Moy’s departure from the investment bank is the latest sign that Wall Street firms will face headwinds retaining top talent from jumping for opportunities in the crypto and Web3 space.
Moy, who announced her resignation from JPMorgan on Tuesday on her LinkedIn page, led JPMorgan Chase’s digital asset and blockchain business, Onyx by J.P.Morgan. Onyx recently opened a virtual branch in the Decentraland metaverse. Moy had worked at JPMorgan for over 18 years, her LinkedIn page noted.
“After almost two decades, I am leaving JPM to pursue a new opportunity. As for my next world-building adventure, please stay tuned.” Moy wrote. “I am super excited to share with you what is next!”
While Moy did not disclose her next employer, she included the #wgmi hashtag at the end of her farewell post, a Web3-centric anagram meaning “We’re Going to Make it,” indicating membership in an eponymous non-fungible token (NFT) collectors club on the Solana blockchain.
Web3 the next hot career?
“On the back of America’s ‘Great Resignation’ a wave of talents are leaving tech giants and traditional finance to join projects in the wider Web3 hemisphere,” noted 21Shares Research Lead Eli Ndinga in a recent note.
“The big story of this decade is that Web 3 will be the largest beneficiary of The Great Resignation!”
Ndinga writes about the current relative values between the rapidly growing digital space, versus the much more mature banking and tech industries.
“The total value of tech stocks is $9.5 trillion as of writing, as opposed to crypto market’s $1.6 trillion,” Ndinga wrote in a recent report on the subject.
“Remember those numbers because at 21Shares, we believe that in the future the Great Resignation will reflect in the valuation of many crypto projects disrupting industries, such as financial services, eCommerce, media, and art.”
Ndinga, who is keeping a running tab of sorts tracking movement from traditional banking into decentralised finance, cites the relatively low crypto market valuation compared to more mature sectors, offering growth opportunities.
One asset manager is hiring
Digital asset manager Grayscale Investment, currently looking to double its current workforce to over 100, hires from a variety of backgrounds, including from traditional finance.
“Grayscale team members tend to have an entrepreneurial spirit; many do not have expertise in crypto, but are deeply curious and are genuinely excited about shaping the digital economy,” said a Grayscale spokeswoman. “We want to be intentional about redefining what it means to be an asset manager.”
Other recent departures matriculating from traditional finance to DiFi include Gordon Liao, who recently left his position as an economist in the Federal Reserve to lead the research effort at Uniswap Labs.
“Coming from a background in TradFi and CeFi, I’m most excited about the innovations that hold the potential for building a better, safer, more accessible financial system,” Liao said in a farewell Twitter thread.
Other recent moves, Ndinga pointed out include Justin Slaughter, who left the US Securities & Exchange Commission to join Paradigm lobbying regulators and policymakers and Kevin Beardsley, who recently joined XDFI Wallet from Kraken.
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