(Bloomberg) -- There's a hot new skill in the job market these days: cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin-related job postings as a proportion of total listings on LinkedIn jumped more than ninefold in the financial services industry over the past three years and 4.6 times in the software technology industry, according to data from the career-oriented social network. While the number of listings within financial services is growing faster, the majority of crypto-related jobs -- 70 percent -- are still tied to software development.
And as bitcoin's price surged as much as 11-fold this year alone, moving from an obsession for computer geeks and libertarians to a hot topic at the Thanksgiving dinner table, more people are listing it as a skill on LinkedIn. There are now 28 times as many profiles that cite cryptocurrency talents as there were were four years ago, and 5.5 times more who claim bitcoin aptitude specifically. The precise skill sets involved weren't listed.
The trend was apparent at the first crypto conference dedicated to institutional investment earlier this week, where financiers and analysts piled into a hotel ballroom in Manhattan to discuss what comes next for the industry. While skeptics abound, warning of a monster bubble as the price hurtles beyond $10,000, the potential for profit has become too big for Wall Street titans to ignore.
While interest in cryptocurrencies started with technologists and hobbyists, it has since progressed to wealthy individuals, venture-capital offices and now retail investors, James Schneider, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., wrote in a note to clients after attending the conference.
“Some fund managers predicted that endowments and traditional institutional investors could begin to participate in the market over the next two years, but noted that significant challenges related to market structure and regulation will need to be overcome,” he wrote.
To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Brendan Walsh, Andrew Dunn
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