The inexorable flow of workers leaving their jobs is known as the Great Resignation. More than 33 million Americans quit their jobs between the spring of 2021 and the end of the year, and the chart below visually shows how steep the trend has been in historical terms.
Via FRED St.Louis
Effects of the pandemic
The pandemic has ushered in a whole new way of working. Employees have found out how much fun it is to sit in traffic for two hours a day, or how much they dislike getting on a subway at rush hour, their faces rubbing against a 6-year-old’s sweaty armpit. ”4 (why is there always someone without deodorant?).
People enjoy flexible hours (especially with children) and an employer who cares about their wishes. Personally, I thank a higher power every morning that I no longer have to wear ill-fitting chinos and a worn-out shirt to the office every morning. I’ll take the sweatpants, thanks.
But there is something that I have found particularly interesting about the quit patterns, and that is the exodus of workers from traditional commerce to the crypto space. And yes, I am comfortable using the word exodus, because that is exactly what it is. Investment banks, trading firms, law firms – an increasing number of employees are leaving those jobs to make the leap to crypto (I was one of them!).
Andrew Pompliano wrote A couple of weeks ago crypto exchanges Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, BlockFi and Gemini added nearly 5,000 employees. Anecdotally, of me and my three roommates, only one of the four has yet to look for a remote crypto job (he will eventually give in). I love it too this story of four Facebook developers who quit together to found a new Web3 company.
Maya Miller, CPO of Blockchain.com, summed it up well when said:
“I don’t think anyone can say there is no migration. But why do they do it? Money, money, money and the advantage is huge. But what is the drawback? Maybe it won’t work.”
She is certain about the downside: what if it doesn’t work?
Why Crypto?
Drenched with venture capital cash, many crypto companies have money to spend. But there are more pull factors. Applicants are flocking to join a space that is growing at an astonishing rate, innovating and transforming seemingly on a daily basis, while the mainstream media provides more and more coverage of the nascent industry. NFTs, meme coins, decentralized finance, metaverse, social tokens – the scope is wide and new facets appear in the ecosystem all the time.
It also ties in with broader themes seen throughout the Great Renunciation: many of these companies are remote and offer more flexible terms than historically strict commercial companies, while workers find it more useful to work at companies that are often much more small, but growing at tangible rates. Furthermore, there is an inherently irreverent and anti-corporate attitude in the rogue world of cryptocurrencies; Gone are the days of formal, regimented behavior and walking into work stepping on eggs, something employees have come to value more during the pandemic. People want to enjoy their work.
Christine Moy
Christine Moy, head of crypto and metaverse at JP Morgan, has become the latest to flee the world of traditional trading. Well, to be clear, we don’t know for sure if she is heading into the crypto space, but JP Morgan confirmed in a statement that it is “an outside opportunity.”
Reading between the lines and given the fact that, in JP Morgan’s own words, she has been “instrumental in building and leading JP Morgan’s blockchain program since 2015 when the blockchain team consisted of less than five people,” I am willing bet Moy is heading to the crypto space. Perhaps the strongest evidence of all is found in her seemingly innocuous sign-off statement in her LinkedIn post: “As for my next world-building adventure, please stay tuned. I’m super excited to share with you what’s next! #wgmi ”: the #wgmi, of course, is a popular acronym in cryptography, meaning “we’ll make it”. Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s headed to the metaverse.
Moment
The moment is something peculiar. Just last week, JP Morgan became the first bank to enter the metaverse, opening a branch in Decentraland, called the Onyx Lounge. It was a pivotal moment for the bank, whose CEO Jamien Dimon has infamously called Bitcoin a “fraud” in the past and predicted that it “will not end well.”
Within the metaverse branch, ironically you can see a portrait of Jamie Dimon on the wall, but when you get close with your avatar, it actually changes to that of Christine Moy. A speech bubble from Moy appears saying “welcome to our space!”. Browsing my avatar there a moment ago, following the news of Moy’s resignation, the welcome message reads a bit empty. It will be interesting to see if/when JP Morgan changes it.
My avatar in the JP Morgan branch of the metaverse, with the portrait of Christine Moy (NFT) on the wall. And yes, that is a tiger prowling around the lobby.
Big loss for JP Morgan
It’s a huge loss for the investment bank and a huge bounty for any cryptocurrency firm that catches it, assuming that’s where it ends up. Prior to his seven years leading the blockchain team, he also worked in syndicated loan trading, global commodities, and marketing during a stint at JP Morgan that lasted 18 years.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts often look down on Wall Street as corporate stooges standing in their way; dinosaur species that have manipulated an inefficient system for their benefit. Moy, for his part, has no such reputation. Passionate about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in general, Moy has expressed her support for the industry, and a quick perusal of the accomplishments she outlined in her LinkedIn statement shows the depth of knowledge she has and what a great candidate she is. she is.
Exceed my resume…
Searching forums and Twitter, I struggled to find clues as to where Moy might land. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything of substance, but I’m sure something is imminent.
Our mission has been “to make the impossible possible,” Moy continued in his statement. “I foster a team culture that is focused on being bold and resilient, challenging the status quo and acting with urgency.”
She has done all that and more, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. She just won’t be with JP Morgan; it may not be with any traditional company.
It seems that the crypto world has caught another fish, and this is a big one.
