According to Freelancer.com’s quarterly index on jobs trends, bitcoin careers plummeted along with the cryptocurrency’s value.
Freelance jobs associated with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse increased significantly during the first quarter of 2022, while jobs related to bitcoin decreased.
That’s according to Freelancer.com’s latest quarterly Fast 50 index. This index from the Australian website for freelancing jobs ranks trends in roles posted online.
The index for the first quarter of 2022 analysed data from 351,000 jobs posted on the platform during the first few months of this year.
With the rise of NFTs over the past year, jobs in this area increased by 37pc to 2,814 jobs, according to Freelancer.com’s data.
Other jobs that could be associated with NFTs also experienced an increase, with roles in the caricature and cartoons category up 19pc to 3,205 jobs, illustration jobs up 10pc to 10,330, and 3D design jobs increasing 6pc to 7,347.
With the concept of the metaverse becoming a target for more and more companies, metaverse-related projects also saw an increase during the first months of the year.
Jobs relating to blockchain were up 109pc to 4,816 jobs, Ethereum jobs were up 31pc to 1,780, game design roles increased by 21pc to 1,780 jobs, while game development positions were up by 18pc to 3,041 jobs.
Bitcoin jobs, Microsoft Office roles and statistics roles all decreased by almost a third when compared with the first quarter of 2021.
The decrease in bitcoin jobs was attributed to the crash in the cryptocurrency’s price earlier in the year. Last October, bitcoin reached an all-time high of more than $60,000, however the price crashed by almost 50pc in the following months.
“In the first quarter we saw ambitious trading of monkey JPEGs suck the volume out of bitcoin-related projects,” said Matt Barrie, chief executive at Freelancer.com. “It remains to be seen whether NFTs in their current form are a flash in the pan or whether they become an enduring asset class for investment over speculative trading.”
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