Most crypto business leaders studied Computer science or MBA, Dan Ashmore tells CNBC

• The crypto space was previously more open to people from all fields as the market was still in its early days.

• Coinjournal’s Dan Ashmore believes that the crypto market is becoming a mainstream financial market and is now dominated by those who studied computer science or had an MBA.

• The University of California leads the way as the most common institution attended by crypto executives.

Crypto leaders studied computer science or have an MBA

Coinjournal’s analyst Dan Ashmore spoke to CNBC earlier today, where he discussed various trends in the cryptocurrency space. 

While speaking to CNBC, Ashmore revealed that during the early days of crypto, the industry welcomed people from various fields, including less popular ones like philosophy.

However, as the industry continues to evolve, most cryptocurrency leaders either have an MBA or study computer science and other related courses. When asked about the crypto executives that studied computer science or have an MBA, Ashmore replied that;

“The most obvious one is Changpeng Zhao, who is the Binance CEO. He studied Computer Science at Montreal’s McGill University.”

Looking at the universities attended by cryptocurrency executives, the University of California tops the list. According to Coinjournal’s research, 13 cryptocurrency executives attended the University of California, while 11 of them went to Harvard. Stanford University comes third on the list with eight cryptocurrency business leaders. Ashmore added that;

“In terms of non-US universities, we saw Cambridge up there, but they say it is still a very US-dominated industry. And as a result, a lot of the executives and employees are drawn from the big US universities.”

North America leads the way in terms of crypto salaries

CNBC also looked into Coinjournal’s research on countries with the highest salaries for cryptocurrency workers. According to the report, North America leads the way, with crypto employees in the continent earning an average of $120,000 annually.

Remote work takes second place with $110,000 annually, and Europe came in third with an average salary of $80,000. Ashmore explained that;

“The highest salaries would be the developers. A lot of these are niche-skilled. Smart contract developers are number one that came out. Developers in the US earn north of six figures, but it is a little less in Europe. As for non-technical roles, financial roles could expect around $80k a year, while social media was down towards $50k. All in all, the numbers were quite high on an average basis.”

In terms of cryptocurrency jobs, Singapore leads the way, with 160 cryptocurrency jobs per million people. The United States and the UK take seventh and eighth place, respectively.