The blockchain industry currently accounts for approximately 300,000 global jobs, significantly behind the 1.5 million positions in artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to new research from Bitget. Despite adding roughly 20,000 new positions in 2024 and maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 45%, blockchain employment still lags behind AI’s explosive 57% CAGR. This disparity largely stems from venture capital investment differences, with AI startups attracting over $100 billion in 2024 compared to blockchain’s modest $5.4 billion.
Regulatory developments and technological advancements could accelerate blockchain hiring in coming years. Bitget COO Vugar Usi Zade points to Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), implemented in December 2024, as already thawing hiring freezes in the region. Additionally, technical breakthroughs like Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, which reduced layer-2 transaction fees by over 95%, signal that blockchains can now handle enterprise-level traffic at acceptable costs – potentially opening doors for wider corporate adoption and subsequent job creation.
Rather than competing for talent, experts suggest blockchain and AI technologies are increasingly converging to create new opportunities. Industry professionals note that AI’s “probabilistic” nature, which introduces uncertainty and potential inaccuracies, creates demand for blockchain’s cryptographic certainty. This complementary relationship is already materializing in practical applications, with AI agents recently observed conducting autonomous cryptocurrency transactions on public blockchains – suggesting that integration between these technologies could help blockchain job growth start mirroring AI’s trajectory and potentially exceed one million positions by 2030.
