Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) faced a potentially volatile day on Jan. 18, with multiple macro triggers beginning to unsettle the outlook.

BoJ refuses to hike

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD holding firm above $21,000 on the day.

The pair remained cool amid news from Japan, where the central bank — the Bank of Japan (BoJ) — had decided to keep an ultra-easy policy in place, defying expectations of an interest rate hike.

In doing so, both the Japanese yen and the United States dollar took a hit in the latest chapter of a saga closely watched by crypto commentators.

“In keeping its key rate and yield curve control policy unchanged at today’s meeting, the Bank of Japan probably wanted to convey a message to the market; don’t fight the BoJ,“ ING Bank said in a dedicated response piece.

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices.

According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022

Despite the crypto market capitalization beginning its long plunge from from its all-time high (ATH) of $2.9 trillion in Nov. 2021, monthly developer activity only began to fall in Jun. 2022 after the metric reached its record high of nearly 26,500.

This fall was partly attributed to the fall in developer activity in the Terra ecosystem following its catastrophic collapse in May. 2022.

The next three months from June to September saw a 26% fall in weekly active Web3 developers.

Despite a wave of heavy crypto layoffs to start the new year, employees in technical and engineering roles, as well as senior management, will likely continue to see “strong demand” for their skills, recruitment professionals believe.

It’s been a tough first few weeks of 2023 for crypto businesses and their staff. Within just two weeks, the market has already seen more than 1,600 crypto-related job cuts as a result of continued market volatility and uncertainty. 

However, not all departments have seen the same level of cuts. 

SAFU: Senior-level tech and engineering

Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruitment firm Proof of Talent, told Cointelegraph that technical and engineering roles are by a “wide margin” the most in-demand jobs, even during bear markets.

He said his firm is still seeing “strong demand” for these functions, adding that these salaries are still “very competitive” despite “bidding war type scenarios” no longer being the case for these employees.