Digital Day: What Professions Are Lacking in the Crypto Market and Where to Acquire Them

In the first half of 2026, engineering specialties accounted for 34.1% of active vacancies in the global crypto industry. Legal and compliance roles came in second with 10.4%. Tiger Research analyzed a total of 2,932 active vacancies. Centralized exchanges accounted for 30.8% of the offers, while 13.4% were for companies in the stablecoin and payment sectors.

These figures indicate a shift in the market itself. Developers remain the largest hiring category, but a layer of professions has emerged around technology that was previously associated primarily with banks and other financial organizations: financial monitoring, compliance, risk management, security, and operations control.

In Russia, this transition coincided with the introduction of new legislation. Federal Law No. 282-FZ "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" was signed on August 4 and will come into effect on September 1, 2026. It regulates the operations of organizations engaged in the exchange of digital currencies, digital depositories, brokers, managers, and other participants in the new infrastructure.

However, it would be incorrect to speak of a labor shortage across the entire industry. The Russian labor market in 2026 has become noticeably more competitive. According to Superjob, in the first half of the year, the number of vacancies decreased by 19% year-on-year, while the number of resumes increased by about a third.

The current problem is that companies often need not just a good lawyer, financier, or programmer, but a person who has already mastered a second specialization specifically in the field of cryptocurrency. And there are currently few such specialists.

AML Specialists and Crypto Compliance

"When the market is opened through regulation, demand does not go where it is expected. Everyone thinks about developers, but compliance officers and risk managers are needed," says Olga Goncharova, head of the expert center for digital financial assets and digital currencies at the Association of Banks of Russia.

For a regulated crypto market, this is one of the most challenging staffing tasks. AML—anti-money laundering—has long been a separate function of banks, brokers, and payment organizations. However, classical banking experience is insufficient when working with cryptocurrencies.

The broader financial monitoring market is also facing staffing issues. In a Barclay Simpson study on the financial crime market for 2026, 93% of surveyed employers reported that they find it difficult to locate specialists with the necessary qualifications, and 32% described the search as very challenging. Additionally, 61% of organizations hiring employees in the field of financial crime and compliance stated that the lack of personnel is already affecting the performance of their teams. This is an international study, and its data cannot be directly transferred to the Russian crypto market, but it highlights a deficit in the professional environment from which crypto companies recruit AML specialists.

Instead of the standard and familiar story of money movement, a specialist may receive a chain of dozens or hundreds of blockchain addresses. They need to establish the origin of digital assets, identify associated wallets and services, check for sanctions and fraud risks, and determine whether a transaction can be conducted.

For this, the KYT—Know Your Transaction—procedure is applied, analyzing cryptocurrency transactions. A wallet address by itself usually does not indicate to whom it belongs, so the specialist links public blockchain data with information about the client, counterparties, and known risk sources.

Such a set of requirements is already appearing in Russian job vacancies. For example, Sber is looking for a head of KYT analytics, who must have experience in AML, compliance, or anti-fraud, work with blockchain analytics and KYT systems, build risk models for assets and transactions, and be proficient in SQL or Python. The requirements also include adherence to the FATF approach and the Travel Rule—rules for transmitting information about the sender and recipient of digital assets.

Compliance is now the second largest hiring category after development, and within development itself, the demand has shifted towards crypto infrastructure and security. Companies are looking for individuals who can verify the source of funds, work with sanctions, and transmit data about transfers between organizations. Community managers and token sale specialists, who were heavily recruited in the last cycle, have disappeared from job listings, along with hiring for NFTs and gaming," confirms Goncharova.

Indeed, for example, in August, Bitbanker was looking for a compliance officer in Moscow with a salary starting from 250,000 rubles per month. The main tasks included standard sanctions checks and interaction with banks, while additional requirements included KYT, checking crypto wallets, and analyzing crypto assets.

Dmitry Machikhin, founder of the AML service BitOK, believes that this is not so much about a completely new profession as it is about a combination of several competencies. According to him, specialists with a strong foundational background have an advantage: lawyers, financiers, engineers, who then master cryptocurrency infrastructure, blockchain analytics, and digital compliance.

"There are professions that stand out, and one of them is the AML specialist. But not the classic banking or 'fiat' one, but one possessing a comprehensive set of hard skills in the cryptocurrency field, programming, AI, and analytics," says Machikhin.

In response to such demand, specialized training programs are beginning to emerge. At BitOK, the program for this profile is called EAG Crypto Compliance Officer (ECCO). It is dedicated to AML and crypto compliance for digital assets. The training page of BitOK lists eight modules: from the basics of AML/CTF and regulation of digital currencies to KYC/KYB, Travel Rule, KYT, blockchain analytics, investigations, and interaction with regulators.

According to Machikhin, BitOK has been training specialists of this profile for about two years and has educated over 300 people in the countries of the Eurasian Group on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. This data comes from the company itself.

Indirectly, the emergence of programs like EAG Crypto Compliance Officer (ECCO) shows how the market is trying to formalize the expanded set of competencies of an AML specialist. A crypto compliance specialist no longer only needs to know financial monitoring procedures: they must be able to trace the movement of funds on the blockchain, assess the risk of a wallet or transaction, and translate the results of technical analysis into internal control decisions.

Goncharova notes that mastering the mechanics of blockchain transfers is relatively straightforward. Much harder is learning to understand where risks arise and how they should be accounted for in the procedures of a financial organization. According to her, this experience usually comes from practice, not from studying a single technology.

"What should one do now, while there is no standard? Enter with their profession: compliance, lawyer, developer. They already have a base, but will need to acquire specifics, and this is not a one-month job... Without a common standard, everyone learns this on their own and from their mistakes," concluded Olga Goncharova.

Developers: Experience Needed, Not Just Solidity

Engineers remain the largest hiring category in the crypto industry, accounting for 34.1% of active vacancies in the Tiger Research study. However, within development itself, the demand is becoming more specialized.

Vladimir Gorgadze, head of the Blockchain department at MIPT, answered the question of "who to work for in the crypto industry" by stating that in the coming years, the market will particularly lack developers of complex smart contracts, mathematicians-cryptographers, and smart contract auditors.

According to Gorgadze, the combination of strong programming and mathematics remains particularly rare. For some blockchain projects, developers need not only programming languages but also probability theory, cryptography, game theory, and the ability to assess the economic model of the system.

He separately highlights developers of complex smart contracts in less common languages, such as Vyper, as well as specialists in decentralized finance. In the latter case, technical training must be combined with financial mathematics and an understanding of investment mechanisms.

<<I think I won't be mistaken if I list the following areas that will be in short supply over the next few years: developers of complex smart contracts (especially in non-trivial languages --- for example, Vyper), cryptographic mathematicians, DeFi specialists (a very specific field of knowledge that combines both technical skills and knowledge of financial mathematics, as well as the ability to build investment strategies), blockchain data analysts, product managers focused on the crypto market, smart contract auditors>>, Goradzé provided a list of in-demand professions.

The price for ready expertise can reach several hundred thousand rubles per month. An archived job posting for a Blockchain Smart Contract Developer on Getmatch indicated a salary of 250,000 to 500,000 rubles net. In addition to knowledge of Solidity and the workings of Ethereum, candidates were required to have commercial experience in blockchain development, knowledge of cryptography, consensus mechanisms, and the security of smart contracts.

This figure cannot be considered the average salary of a blockchain developer. However, the job posting itself clearly shows who companies are looking for: not someone who has completed a course on Solidity, but a developer who has already dealt with blockchain infrastructure and understands the consequences of errors in code that manages real assets.

Security: A Shortage Within a Shortage

Security specialists face a different problem: crypto companies are competing for them with the regular IT market, where there is already a shortage of personnel.

A study by <> among information security managers from more than 255 companies showed that 80% of organizations experience a need for specialists. Only 11% were able to fully staff their teams. The share of companies lacking more than ten employees has increased from 17% to 32% over three years. The average time to fill a vacancy is about five months, while the search for specific narrow specialists takes from six months to a year.

The crypto industry is taking people from already scarce professions and adding another set of requirements: working with private keys, signing transactions, smart contracts, and specific blockchain attacks. This is why Goradzé considers smart contract auditors to be among the most in-demand specialties in the coming years.

In June, the Russian company <> was looking for a smart contract security auditor for 250,000 to 300,000 rubles per month. The candidate was required to have practical experience in auditing Solidity contracts, and at the initial stage, they were expected to independently take responsibility for this area.

Analysts, Risk Managers, and Product Managers

Another group of professions is less visible than development, but it is impossible to build a large financial service without it. Goradzé expects a shortage of blockchain data analysts and product managers with experience in the crypto market. Goncharova adds risk managers to this list.

For a systems analyst, the cryptocurrency specifics begin even with a regular account replenishment. It is necessary to describe how the system finds a transaction, how many confirmations it waits for, how it links the transfer to the client, at what point it changes the internal balance, and what it should do in case of a technical failure.

In August, Selecty was looking for a lead systems analyst for Blockchain/Ethereum with a salary of 350,000 to 400,000 rubles. The specialist was to work on an asset tokenization platform on Ethereum. In addition to five years of experience as a systems analyst, at least two years of commercial work with Ethereum and an understanding of network architecture, smart contracts, and KYT/AML compliance were required.

This example again shows the same pattern. A systems analyst is not a new profession. The combination of core experience and blockchain specialization is becoming rare.

Risk managers need to combine a different set of competencies. In addition to familiar market and operational risks, they face round-the-clock trading, high volatility, the operation of centralized and decentralized platforms, liquidation mechanisms, and technical risks specific to certain networks.

Where to Get Training for Work in the Crypto Industry, AML, and Other Professions

Another problem related to the labor shortage is that the cryptocurrency market has developed faster than the professional education system.

<>, says Olga Tisen, rector of the Russian State University of Justice named after V.M. Lebedev.

According to Tisen, specializations for blockchain analysts, digital currency lawyers, crypto compliance specialists, and taxation experts in the crypto industry have already formed, but systematic training for such professionals began significantly later than the emergence of the market itself.

Starting from the new academic year, RGU will launch a master's program <<Lawyer in the Field of Digital Currencies, Digital Rights, and Artificial Intelligence Law>>. The program includes digital currencies and digital rights, blockchain, cybersecurity, mining, and other applied legal issues. In 2026, five budget-funded and 25 paid positions are planned, with a duration of two years and four months for part-time study.

There is also technical education that can make it easier to start working in cryptocurrency. At the <> department of MIPT, the master's program includes decentralized finance, tokenomics, mathematical methods of zero-knowledge proofs, and a separate course <> with a volume of 60 hours.

Gorgadze believes that comprehensive programs are still insufficient. According to him, most mass education around cryptocurrencies has long been focused on trading and ways to earn money, while a professional specialist needs knowledge of the structure of digital assets, blockchain networks, smart contracts, regulation, and business models.

<<One way or another, leading universities are creating separate courses or training programs. At Phystech, there is a blockchain department, and partially courses can be found at ITMO, HSE, MSU, Skoltech, TSU, MIFI, and Bauman Moscow State Technical University>>, the expert added.

At the same time, specialized additional training programs are already emerging in Russia. For example, the aforementioned EAG Crypto Compliance Officer (ECCO) from BitOK, focused specifically on AML and working with digital assets. Or practical courses from the Moscow Exchange School on risk management and compliance.

The educational market is gradually beginning to respond to the same problem visible in job vacancies. Universities provide a fundamental legal or technical basis, while narrower programs address specific professional tasks—such as the work of an AML officer with cryptocurrency transactions.

Machikhin believes this path is more realistic than trying to create dozens of completely new <>. A strong lawyer, engineer, or financier who has gained additional industry competence, in his opinion, has an advantage over someone who knows the crypto market well but lacks a fundamental professional base.

This same thought is echoed by other experts. Gorgadze speaks of a shortage of specialists at the intersection of programming, mathematics, and finance. Goncharova discusses the combination of compliance and understanding of digital assets. Tisen mentions lawyers who now need knowledge of blockchain, taxes, and financial monitoring.

Therefore, the talent pool of the Russian crypto market is not only among those who choose <> from the very beginning. These are banking AML officers, lawyers, developers, security specialists, and risk management professionals who will need to acquire a second specialization.

The emergence of master's programs in digital currencies at universities, courses on KYT, specialized qualifications such as EAG Crypto Compliance Officer (ECCO), and other non-university training shows that the market has already begun to formalize this skill set. The question remains how quickly the number of trained specialists can catch up with the demand from the new regulated infrastructure.

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