“Japan is facing long-term headwinds including negative interest rates, which is driving headcount lower at finance firms,” said Yoshiharu Akahane, who oversees fintech research at Tokyo-based NTT Data Corp. “That coincides with our huge crypto boom, which is much stronger than in the rest of the world, and explains why more people may jump to the crypto industry.”
Kano can’t promise to beat the banks on salaries, but he said there are plenty of people at bitFlyer who earn more than $200,000 a year.
Stock options are also a major draw. All of bitFlyer’s full-time employees receive them and can cash out without having to wait for the company’s planned initial public offering, Kano said, declining to elaborate on a timeframe for an IPO. “At what other startup can the secretary become a millionaire?”
That upside potential could help bitFlyer compete for talent even as Wall Street firms tiptoe into the crypto space themselves. Goldman is preparing to open a Bitcoin-trading business, while Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the owner of New York Stock Exchange, is said to be working on a platform that would let investors bet on the cryptocurrency. In Japan, financial companies including SBI Holdings Inc. and Monex Group Inc. are making big investments in crypto businesses.
While Kano declined to discuss details of bitFlyer’s finances, disclosures from one of its rivals suggest crypto exchanges in Japan are comfortably profitable. Coincheck Inc., the venue that lost client assets to hackers in January, reported an estimated $490 million in operating profit in the 10 months before the theft (the exchange was later bought by Monex).
There’s no guarantee that the boom times will last. Average daily turnover at global crypto exchanges fell to $9.1 billion in April from $17 billion in December as prices for most major tokens sank more than 50 percent from their highs, according to CryptoCompare. In another sign of waning interest, Google searches for “Bitcoin” and “crypto” have dropped by more than 70 percent since late last year.
“I just didn’t see a future in traditional finance,” said Daisuke Murayama, the 35-year-old former Barclays trader who took a pay cut to join bitFlyer in February. “It’s never coming back.”This article was provided by Bloomberg News.