Fortune 100 Companies Ramp Up Onchain Initiatives

In an unprecedented move, America’s leading public companies have substantially increased their engagement with blockchain technologies, according to Coinbase’s latest State of Crypto report. The first quarter of 2024 saw a remarkable 39% year-over-year growth in onchain initiatives among the Fortune 100, highlighting a burgeoning corporate interest in blockchain applications.

The report also indicates that mentions of bitcoin and stablecoins in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings have reached new peaks this year. This surge reflects the growing integration of cryptocurrency into mainstream business operations.

A significant 56% of Fortune 500 executives acknowledged their companies’ involvement in onchain projects, focusing on areas such as cross-border payments, settlements, treasury management, and tokenization.

Despite this enthusiasm, the U.S. appears to be lagging behind in the global race for blockchain talent. According to the report, “the U.S. continues to lose developer share, down 14 points in the past five years; only 26% of crypto developers are U.S.-based today.” This decline is notable, especially since Fortune 500 executives have identified the lack of trusted talent as a major barrier to adopting blockchain technology, even more so than regulatory challenges.

The 2023 Crypto Developer Report by Electric Capital reveals that a staggering 72% of blockchain developers are based outside of North America. Regions such as South Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Africa, and Southern Europe have seen their developer shares increase by over 20% since 2018.

While some attribute the U.S. decline in developer share to ambiguous regulations surrounding cryptocurrency, another factor is the cost of hiring. A compensation survey by Pantera Capital in October revealed significant salary disparities: the median salary for crypto engineers in North America is $166,010, compared to $102,226 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, $90,559 in Latin America, and just $75,000 in the Asia Pacific region.

This economic discrepancy makes it more cost-effective for companies to hire Web3 developers from regions where the financial demands are lower, contributing further to the shifting landscape of global blockchain development.