What are the top US cities for blockchain and cryptocurrency jobs? This question has been asked before, but never adequately answered. Previous attempts have focused solely on an analysis of internet job postings. But is a simple tally of job board postings truly the best and most complete way to evaluate the true climate for blockchain jobs? We didn’t think so. So we set off on a months-long mission to put together the most exhaustive and comprehensive ranking of the best US cities for blockchain jobs.
We utilized a data-driven approach consisting of an analysis of five key indicators of the overall health of blockchain job markets in more than 300 cities across the US.
We started by examining over 3 millions job listings across four sites and isolated blockchain-specific jobs. But this was the easy part and this factor makes up only 30% of our overall ranking.
Next, we evaluated cities by the number of top blockchain startups, the number of new blockchain companies in the last 120 days, the number of crypto funds, and the status of the overall employment market. This results in a far more thorough and holistic examination of the current climate for blockchain jobs in each city, and also serves as an indicator for potential growth of the job market.
Blockchain Jobs Criteria
Job boards give an incomplete picture of a city’s true job market. Many companies don’t advertise on public boards and instead rely on headhunters, recruiters, and referrals. Job boards are also, at best, a static snapshot in time. A few companies engaging in a brief hiring spree may distort the findings.
Instead of relying purely on job board postings, we employed a multi-factor approach and examined five key indicators of the health of each city’s blockchain jobs market. Those factors are:
- # Blockchain Job Postings – 30%
- Top 300 Blockchain Companies (weighted) – 30%
- # of New Blockchain Startups in Last 120 Days – 10%
- Crypto Hedge Funds and Venture Capital – 20%
- Overall Health of Job Market – 10%
We feel this data-heavy, multi-factor approach gives a much more complete picture of the true vibrancy of a given blockchain job market than relying on job postings alone. The number of blockchain companies headquartered in each city is less prone to day-to-day gyrations than job postings and gives a macro view of the blockchain landscape. We supplement this with data on new blockchain startups from the last 120 days.
The number of crypto and blockchain funds, particularly venture capital, is a good indicator of investors’ outlook for the technology and blockchain sectors. Investors figuratively put their money where their mouth is. And if their money is in a given city, you can bet they see a strong future for growth. As an example of this phenomenon, Robinhood, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Palo Alto completed a $363 million Series A financing round in May 2018. Four of the six investors were Bay Area venture firms.
Lastly, we look at employment numbers for each metropolitan area as a broader indicator of the health of each city’s employment market.
Top 20 US Cities for Blockchain Jobs
Enough about methodology, let’s get to the list of the top US cities for blockchain jobs:
| Rank | City | State | Score 1 | Score 2 | Score 3 | Score 4 | Score 5 | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco | CA | 12.42 | 30 | 10 | 20 | 8.89 | 81.31 |
| 2 | New York | NY | 30 | 18.25 | 10 | 15.26 | 5.45 | 78.97 |
| 3 | Chicago | IL | 5.47 | 3.71 | 1.3 | 5.26 | 5.58 | 21.32 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | CA | 4.7 | 2.47 | 5.56 | 2.11 | 6.32 | 21.15 |
| 5 | Boston | MA | 3.28 | 4.02 | 1.85 | 3.68 | 7.06 | 19.9 |
| 6 | Palo Alto | CA | 2.58 | 2.78 | 0.56 | 4.74 | 8.89 | 19.54 |
| 7 | Austin | TX | 3.15 | 2.47 | 3.33 | 2.11 | 7.74 | 18.81 |
| 8 | Menlo Park | CA | 0.45 | 0.31 | 0.19 | 4.74 | 8.89 | 14.57 |
| 9 | Seattle | WA | 4.12 | 1.24 | 1.67 | 0.53 | 6.15 | 13.7 |
| 10 | Denver | CO | 1.87 | 0.93 | 0.19 | 2.11 | 8.57 | 13.66 |
| 11 | Atlanta | GA | 1.67 | 2.47 | 1.48 | 1.05 | 6 | 12.68 |
| 12 | Sunnyvale | CA | 1.09 | 1.55 | 0.56 | 0.53 | 8.89 | 12.61 |
| 13 | Mountain View | CA | 1.61 | 1.24 | 0.37 | 0 | 8.89 | 12.11 |
| 14 | San Jose | CA | 2.19 | 0.93 | 0 | 0 | 8.89 | 12.01 |
| 15 | Portland | OR | 1.35 | 0 | 0.19 | 0 | 10 | 11.54 |
| 16 | San Diego | CA | 0.97 | 1.24 | 0.37 | 1.05 | 7.5 | 11.13 |
| 17 | Nashville | TN | 0.71 | 0.62 | 0 | 0.53 | 8.89 | 10.74 |
| 18 | Oakland | CA | 0.71 | 0.62 | 0 | 0.53 | 8.89 | 10.74 |
| 19 | Santa Clara | CA | 0.52 | 0.93 | 0.37 | 0 | 8.89 | 10.7 |
| 20 | Washington | DC | 1.35 | 0.93 | 0 | 1.58 | 6.67 | 10.53 |
Score 1 – Based on # of total blockchain job listings (max score=30)
Score 2 – Based on # of top 300 blockchain companies (max score=30)
Score 3 – Based on # of blockchain startups (max score=10)
Score 4 – Based on # of blockchain/crypto hedge funds and VC (max score=20)
Score 5 – Based on metro area unemployment rate (max score=10)
Total Score – Sum of scores 1-5 (max score=100)
Few will probably be surprised that New York and San Francisco lead the list of top cities for blockchain and cryptocurrency jobs. Both have thriving technology sectors, an abundance of talent from the top universities in close proximity, well developed financial and capital markets, and are generally viewed as desirable places to live.
That Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston round out the top five is also likely not a surprise for many of the same reasons. However, some may find Austin, TX coming in at number seven a bit unexpected. Yet Austin is quite deserving of this rank, palcing among the top 10 in four of the five criteria. Other cities making the top 20 that may not have been obvious contenders are Atlanta, Denver, Portland, and Nashville.
Eight of the top 20 cities for blockchain jobs are in the Bay Area. All have become hubs for technology companies over the last decade and it’s no shock that blockchain companies are opening up in an area with what’s arguably considered the most concentrated and developed technology ecosystem in the world.
Blockchain Jobs Charts and Graphs
Blockchain Jobs Heatmaps
City-by-City Analysis
San Francisco, CA – Rank 1 Overall
San Francisco barely squeezed out New York as the top city for blockchain jobs on our list. Though San Francisco had significantly fewer job postings than New York, it dominated in nearly every other category. San Francisco was first in terms of top blockchain companies, blockchain startups, and crypto/blockchain investment funds. It also has a strong overall job market as indicated by its relatively low 2.7% unemployment rate. In fact, San Francisco placed first or second in every category.
San Francisco is home to leading crypto exchange Coinbase, cryptocurrency and payment solutions Ripple and Tezos, and some of the most established crypto hedge funds and VC funds such as Metastable, Polychain Capital, and Hard Yaka.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 2
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 1
Rank, # of blockchain startups: T1
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 1
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: Coinbase, Ripple, CoinTracker, Harbor, Tezos
New York, NY – Rank 2 Overall
New York ended up second for blockchain jobs by a narrow margin. Though it had more than twice as many blockchain job postings as any other city, it came in second to San Francisco in terms of top blockchain companies and blockchain funds. New York’s unemployment rate is in the middle of the pack.
Still, New York was ranked far ahead of our third ranked city and isn’t in danger of slipping back in the rankings anytime soon. In fact, because San Francisco and New York were essentially neck and neck in our overall scoring, small changes to weightings could have put New York in the lead.
New York is home to Chainalysis, a Bitcoin fraud and money laundering identification tool. It is also home to a large number of crypto hedge funds and venture capital as well as banks like JP Morgan that are in the process of implementing blockchain based payment systems.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 1
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 2
Rank, # of blockchain startups: T1
Rank # of blockchain/crypto funds: 2
Rank, unemployment rate: 20
Top Blockchain Companies: Chainalysis, Celsius Network, tZero
Chicago, IL – Rank 3 Overall
Chicago just barely edged out Los Angeles for number three on our list of top cities for blockchain jobs. Chicago scored well in most categories, though there were not a large number of new blockchain startups over the last four months.
Commodity and stock exchanges, many of which are based in Chicago, currently await further clarification from the SEC and other regulators on the viability of exchange traded funds and futures products linked to cryptocurrency. As regulators articulate their position on those issues, there is a distinct possibility Chicago will attract a number of crypto trading funds.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 3
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 4
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 8
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 3
Rank, unemployment rate: 19
Top Blockchain Companies: Omega Grid, Bloq, Tally Capital
Los Angeles, CA – Rank 4 Overall
Just fractions of a point behind Chicago, Los Angeles comes in at number three on our list.
Though lacking the sheer number of established blockchain companies as San Francisco to the north, Los Angeles is seeing a large number of blockchain startups. LA has a large talent pool as a result of several top universities with strong computer science and technology programs. It’s also widely seen as one of the top startup ecosystems in the country and generally has lower costs than New York or San Francisco.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 4
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 6
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 3
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 7
Rank, unemployment rate: 16
Top Blockchain Companies: Everipedia, Lucid Sight, MyEtherWallet
Boston, MA – Rank 5 Overall
Boston scored relatively well in all categories, scoring in the top 10 in four of five. Boston has long been one of the centers for technology companies and venture capital in the US and it’s no surprise it performs well for blockchain jobs overall.
The Boston area is also home to an extremely desirable talent pool due to its proximity to top universities like Harvard and MIT. This abundance of skilled talent will continue to attract blockchain startups desperate for employees with engineering and computer science backgrounds.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 6
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 3
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 5
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 6
Rank, unemployment rate: 14
Top Blockchain Companies: Airfox, Flipside Crypto, Voatz, Circle
Palo Alto, CA – Rank 6 Overall
Palo Alto, home to Stanford University, has long been one of the premier cities for venture capital and technology companies. There are also a number of Fintech and blockchain-specific venture funds operating here.
Access to capital and a large job pool of intelligent technology minds are some of the key reasons blockchain companies continue to flock to this southern Bay Area city. Palo Alto-based Robinhood, one the US’ largest blockchain companies recently received over $300 million in funding giving it a valuation in excess of $5 billion.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 8
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 5
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 9
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 4
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: Robinhood, 1WorldOnline, Swarm Fund, Boardwalktech
Austin, TX – Rank 7 Overall
Some may be surprised Austin ranks as high as it does on this list. However, those closely following the blockchain scene will have noticed that Austin has attracted, and continues to attract, top blockchain companies like Tenfold as well as a handful of crypto and blockchain investment funds like Multicoin Capital.
In 2016 CNBC named Austin the top startup mecca in the US and though that may be an arguable assertion, there is no doubt that Austin has put itself on the map when it comes to technology startups.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 7
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 7
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 4
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 8
Rank, unemployment rate: 12
Top Blockchain Companies: Tenfold, InXero, BitTeller, Multicoin Capital
Menlo Park, CA – Rank 8 Overall
Like nearby Palo Alto, Menlo Park has long been a breeding ground for top technology startups as well as venture and private equity investors.
Two of the largest investors in crypto and blockchain companies, Pantera Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are based in Menlo Park. These conditions are a large part of the reason blockchain companies abound in this south Bay Area city and is particularly lucrative for those looking to work on the investment side of the blockchain industry.
Menlo Park is home to Iotex, a decentralized network for the Internet of Things founded in 2017.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 20
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 19
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 14
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 5
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: Iotex, Pantera Capital, Andreessen Horowitz
Seattle, WA – Rank 9 Overall
Seattle has long been the technology center of the Northwest and is home to a number of top blockchain companies as well as startups. Available blockchain job providers include Amazon, Bittrex, and New Alchemy.
In August 2018, Seattle will host Blockchain Conference Seattle for the first time. Capital is flowing in as well. Reflective Ventures recently announced it will partner with RChain for a $180 million blockchain specific venture fund.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 5
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 10
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 6
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 13
Rank, unemployment rate: 17
Top Blockchain Companies: Cakecodes, UnikoinGold, Coinme
Denver, CO – Rank 10 Overall
Rounding out the top 10 cities for blockchain jobs is Denver, CO. Denver his home to ETHDenver, the largest Ethereum hackathon and a number of blockchain companies.
Lawmakers in Denver even recently passed a bill encouraging state agencies to explore using blockchain technology to reduce costs and prevent fraud. Denver is also home to one of the larger Ethereum hackathons, EthDenver, as well as SALT Lending, a blockchain-based lending solution.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 10
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 14
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 6
Rank # of blockchain/crypto funds: 14
Rank, unemployment rate: 10
Top Blockchain Companies: Zerocoin, LDGR Capital, Ideas by Nature, SALT Lending
Atlanta, GA – Rank 11 Overall
Atlanta has always had one of the most developed venture capital markets in the southern US and a thriving economy for tech startups. This is a large part of the reason Atlanta ranks 8th in terms of top blockchain companies and 7th for blockchain startups.
Also helping Atlanta attract startups, including blockchain startups, is the relatively affordable cost of living and office rents. Atlanta is home to Storj Labs, a decentralized data storage solution founded in 2014.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 11
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 8
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 7
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 12
Rank, unemployment rate: 18
Top Blockchain Companies: Storj Labs, Verady, The Monetizr
Sunnyvale, CA – Rank 12 Overall
For the 12th ranked city for blockchain jobs we return to the Bay Area. Sunnyvale is just to the southeast of Palo Alto and Menlo Park and benefits from the Bay Area’s thriving venture capital and technology industries.
Sunnyvale is home to the Plug and Play Tech Center, one of the largest accelerators/incubators in the world. Sunnyvale is also headquarters to Crowdz, the world’s first blockchain-based replacement for EDI-dependent business transactions.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 15
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 9
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 10
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 14
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: Crowdz, TigerEx, Thunder Token
Mountain View, CA – Rank 13 Overall
Squeezed between Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, Mountain View comes in 13th on our list of top cities for blockchain jobs. It feels a bit repetitive to highlight the technology and venture capital of the Bay Area once again, but… well that largely explains Mountain View’s top 20 ranking.
Mountain View is home to several blockchain startups including BitClave, a blockchain-based search engine that proposes a new model for monetizing search while keeping search data secure and protected.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 12
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 11
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 11
Rank # of blockchain/crypto funds: 17
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: BitClave, Skuchain, Nebel.tv
San Jose, CA – Rank 14 Overall
The heart of the southern Bay Area, explanation for San Jose’s inclusion on this list is hardly necessary. IBM, CISCO, and various blockchain companies are all currently hiring new employees.
When most people think of the Bay Area, they think San Francisco, but with over a million residents, San Jose is actually the largest city. Though rents are high by most standards, they are typically more affordable than San Francisco and some other parts of Silicon Valley.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 9
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 13
Rank, # of blockchain startups: Unranked
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: Unranked
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: Zettabytes, Qulsar
Portland, OR – Rank 15 Overall
Portland’s technology sector may not be well know to all, but it’s Silicon Forest, a play on Silicon Valley, has birthed several tech startups, particularly in the hardware space.
Portland also has a young, tech-savvy labor pool. Startups have been taking advantage of this as evidenced in part by Portland’s extremely low unemployment rate. While there aren’t nearly as many blockchain companies operating in Portland as in the Bay Area, a strong labor climate and relatively inexpensive cost of living make Portland a desirable location for many blockchain job-seekers.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 14
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: Unranked
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 16
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: Unranked
Rank, unemployment rate: 1
Top Blockchain Companies: The VillageFund
San Diego, CA – Rank 16 Overall
Home to Qualcomm , San Diego often stays under most people’s tech radar. That said, it’s beginning to attract blockchain startups.
San Diego ranked in the top 20 in all five categories we studied and is home to Ben, a chatbot made for those new to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Ben allows people to become familiar with cryptocurrencies and easily buy and sell.
Those seeking blockchain jobs in San Diego will also likely be attracted to the warm weather, beautiful beaches, and generally laid-back attitude San Diego is famous for.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 15
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 12
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 12
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 12
Rank, unemployment rate: 13
Top Blockchain Companies: Ben, Unicoin Blockchain
Nashville, TN – Rank 15 Overall
Nashville isn’t just for music. Like the Bay Area, it has strong economic conditions. It also has a small, but well developed technology economy.
The number of blockchain jobs and companies in Nashville is still relatively limited, but continuing to grow.
From a job-seeker;s perspective Nashville offers lively entertainment and a cost of living that’s about half that of New York or San Francisco.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 18
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 18
Rank, # of blockchain startups: Unranked
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 16
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: PointNurse
Oakland, CA – Rank 18 Overall
For the 18th best city for blockchain jobs, we cross the bay from San Francisco and head to Oakland. Home to Pandora and Ask.com, Oakland has begun to attract top Bay Area tech firms looking for more attractively priced rental space than can be found in San Francisco.
Oakland continues to poach tech firms from the rest of the Bay Area and while by no means inexpensive, offers a lower cost of living than it’s neighbor across the bay, San Francisco.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 17
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 17
Rank, # of blockchain startups: Unranked
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 15
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: CryptoMove
Santa Clara, CA – Rank 19 Overall
Our final Silicon Valley city, Santa Clara is also the final California city to make our list of top 20 cities for blockchain jobs. It’s also home to Intel’s headquarters so it’s no shock it attracts a variety of tech companies including those involved with blockchain.
Santa Clara isn’t currently home to any leading crypto/blockchain investment funds, but that is likely to change. It did, however, rank in the top 20 in all four other categories we examined.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 19
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 16
Rank, # of blockchain startups: 13
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: Unranked
Rank, unemployment rate: T2
Top Blockchain Companies: WeTuring, SharkPay, Evercoin
Washington, DC – Rank 20 Overall
DC is not just home to the nation’s capital, it’s also among the top 10 cities for venture capital investment. With this, comes a small, but growing tech economy and a handful of blockchain companies.
DC is likely to play a significant role in the future of blockchain, and cryptocurrencies in particular, as various financial regulators determine how to deal with everything from taxes to Initial Coin Offerings.
Rank, # of blockchain job listings: 13
Rank, # of top 300 blockchain companies: 15
Rank, # of blockchain startups: Unranked
Rank, # of blockchain/crypto funds: 10
Rank, unemployment rate: 15
Top Blockchain Companies: BigDataGuys, Global Blockchain Business Council, Gladius
Study Methodology
In attempting to evaluate the top US cities for blockchain jobs, every attempt is made to ensure the data used is accurate, relevant, and publicly available in some format. Links to the relevant information are provided throughout.
The fundamental assumption underlying this research is that job boards, while valuable, paint a limited and static portrait of regional job markets. To get a broader picture of current job markets, and to present insight into future growth potential, additional data and evaluation is necessary. To this end, the study includes four supplemental factors that provide not only a look at a city’s current blockchain and cryptocurrency job market, but also an indicator of potential growth in that sector over the short to mid term.
The study’s approach is highly data-driven. Examined are more than three million job postings across four leading job sites, thousands of established blockchain companies and startups, over 300 crypto hedge funds and venture capital funds, and employment data for 380 metro areas from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Though the approach is data-heavy and intended to be as objective as possible, some subjectivity is required. For example, there is no purely objective method for assigning individual weights to given categories. Even if equal weighting is used, the selection of categories for inclusion introduces an element of subjectivity.
It is possible to use the same data, and through altering the given weights, to come up with slightly different results. However, there is no viable way to completely remove all subjectivity and still produce a broad, comprehensive measure of the overall health of a city’s blockchain job market.
Below are additional details on how scores for each category are determined:
# of Blockchain Job Postings
Overall Weighting – 30%
Data for the number of blockchain and cryptocurrency jobs comes from four leading job sites – SimplyHired, Monster, Glassdoor, and Dice. The first three appeal to job-seekers across many disciplines, while Dice is primarily aimed at tech jobs.
In all, more than 3 million job listings were analyzed; 3,555 of which were directly related to blockchain or cryptocurrency. Most were for blockchain-specific companies like Coinbase and Consensys. However, there were also significant number of job postings from established technology firms like IBM and Microsoft, financial institutions pursuing blockchain for financial transactions like JP Morgan and Bank of America, and universities like USC and Auburn.
Various filtering techniques were applied to the 3,555 blockchain jobs. After removing duplicate and irrelevant posts, 1936 unique blockchain jobs in more than 260 cities across 39 states, DC, and Puerto Rico remained.
Cities were initially awarded 1 point for each blockchain job posting. The city with the highest initial score was awarded the maximum score of 30. For example, New York had 466 job postings and was awarded 30 total points. Remaining cities were scored relative to New York. San Francisco, for example, had 193 jobs and was awarded a score of 12.42, or (193/466)*30.
Sources and Additional Data: SimplyHired, Monster, Glassdoor, Dice, Blockchain Job Data
Top 300 Blockchain Companies
Overall Weighting – 30%
In evaluating the overall vitality of a city’s blockchain job market, the top 300 US blockchain companies according to Crunchbase, were examined. Crunchbase has developed their own proprietary ranking criteria that includes funding, acquisitions, news articles and more. You can view more about their criteria here.
Cities were allocated 1 point for each top 300 blockchain company headquartered. In addition, cities were given an additional point for each company in the top 50 and one more point for each company in the top 10. This reflects the assumption that larger, better funded companies are likely to hire more employees than smaller companies.
Points for each city were totaled and the city with the highest score was given the maximum total score of 30. In this case, San Francisco scored the highest with 70, and was awarded 30 total points. Final scores for remaining cities were calculated by dividing their initial points by 70 and then multiplying by 30. For example, New York had 48 points in initial score and this resulted in a final score of 20.57
Sources and Additional Data: Crunchbase, Top 300 US Blockchain Companies
# of New Blockchain Startups in Last 120 Days
Overall Weighting – 10%
Having already examined the top 300 blockchain companies, we also wanted to look at the frequency with which new blockchain startups are being formed in each city. This serves as a proxy for future growth. Future growth implies not only more blockchain jobs in the shorter term, but also provides more opportunity for advancement for current employees.
There is no surefire way to evaluate every blockchain company that has formed in the US. Lacking an absolute list, data was derived from new memberships at AngelList. Companies typically join AngelList when they are just beginning to seek outside funding. In our view, the number of new companies joining AngelList is a decent, though imperfect, proxy for the growth of the blockchain startups in a given city.
In all 308 blockchain/cryptocurrency companies met our criteria by joining AngelList between January 1 and April 30, 2018. Equal weight was given to each company. The city(s) with the largest number were given the highest possible score of 10. In this case, New York and San Francisco each had 54 of the 308 total companies on this list. To arrive at total scores for other cities, the number of companies was divided by 54 and then multiplied by 10.
Sources and Additional Data: AngelList, Blockchain Startups 2018
# of Crypto Hedge Funds and Venture Capital
Overall Weighting – 20%
Hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity typically locate in cities with thriving industries they invest in. For example, Silicon Valley is widely viewed as the heart of technological innovation. As a result, it is also home to a disproportionate number of tech-based venture capital funds. This relationship between startups and venture capital is largely symbiotic. New startups gravitate to areas with ready access to capital. This leads to additional capital flows into the area and so on.
Because of this relationship, it is the study’s view that the number of blockchain and cryptocurrency investment funds is a good indicator of not only the current health of a city’s blockchain economy, but also of its longer-term potential for growth.
The source for this data is Crypto Fund Research’s list of 300+ global cryptocurrency hedge funds and venture capital. At the time of the study, 179 of these were located in the US and included 112 hedge funds, 70 venture capital funds, and 12 private equity funds.
The city with the highest number of crypto funds, San Francisco, has 38 funds and was awarded the maximum of 20 total points. For remaining cities, their number of funds was divided by 38 and multiplied by 20 to arrive at a total score.
Sources and Additional Data: Crypto Fund Research, Crypto Funds by City
Unemployment Rate
Overall Weighting – 10%
For the fifth and final factor, we evaluate overall employment conditions by examining unemployment rates in each city’s greater metropolitan area. Unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March 2018 publication of employment rates for 388 metropolitan areas.
We ignore cities that had not scored points in any of the other 4 categories. Among the remaining cities, the one(s) with the lowest unemployment rate was given the maximum total score of 10 points for this category. In this case, Portland, OR and Kennebunk, ME, with unemployment rates of 2.4%, were awarded 10 points. To calculate scores for other cities, we divided 2.4% by their unemployment rate and multiplied by 10.
Sources and Additional Data: BLS Metro Unemployment Rates