According to the new LinkedIn’s list published on Sept. 4, Ripple moved to the 28th place (was seventh in 2018) while Coinbase’s position was downgraded to 29th (was third in 2018). Stock and crypto trading startup Robinhood mostly retained its position, moving from the sixth place in 2018 to the 7th in 2019.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple, the blockchain startup behind XRP, have fallen out of the top 10 of this year’s business and employment-oriented service Linkedln’s “The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for” list.
On the other hand, Gemini Trust Company, the custodian of the crypto exchange lead by the Winklevoss twins, and Ethereum (ETH) development firm ConsenSys are not present in this year’s list at all. In 2019, they occupied the 25th and the 26th spots respectively.
Crypto startups are falling out
Notably, LinkedIn’s 2019 list also includes computer software firm Plaid that specializes in fintech applications and offers its services to Coinbase, Robinhood, American Express, Venmo, and other well-known companies.
A major player’s perspective
LinkedIn is arguably one of the biggest job finding and recruiting social media platforms. According to a report published in August by web hosting firm Kinsta, there are 575 million users registered on the platform, and searches for “LinkedIn” have more than doubled in the last 10 years.
It is noted that LinkedIn considers four main parameters during the evaluation process: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement and startups’ ability to attract talent from major companies. According to the new list, the top three startups this year are cloud data firm Snowflake, cannabis dose pen startup Dosist and Internet of Things platform Samsara.
As Cointelegraph reported in February, the Forbes 2019 “Fintech 50” list of the world’s top financial technology firms featured six blockchain companies, little more than half of the amount listed in the 2018 edition.
Coinbase Discusses Acqui-Hire With Ripple-Backed Rental Startup
United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is currently discussing the possibility of hiring the engineering team of Ripple-backed storage and rental startup Omni Rentals, tech news outlet TechCrunch reported on Oct. 5.
Not the only company interested
Per the report, two unspecified sources familiar with the situation told the outlet that Omni is currently struggling with layoffs and just lost seven operations team members. Besides Coinbase, the startup is also in talks with professional hiring intermediary Thumbtack for the same reason.
Coinbase would reportedly employ the engineering team to further develop its Coinbase Earn education platform that is currently available in over 100 countries. It was first announced in December last year and lets users earn crypto for studying the ecosystem.
Still, an official Coinbase spokesperson told the outlet that no deal took place so far and there’s nothing official to share.
Not many customers
TechCrunch explains that Omni’s Rentals business was doing poorly since not many users were interested in borrowing the goods on the platform. In hopes of finding a solution, the startup had planned to launch a white-label service that brick-and-mortar merchants would be able to operate and market their own rental businesses.
Omni also reportedly received $25 million from Ripple in early 2018, but fears that the new platform wouldn’t find more success made it abandon the white-label project.
High-profile hiring deals and acquisitions are becoming ever more frequent in the cryptocurrency industry. As Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 4, Ripple has hired United States congressional assistant Ron Hammond as a government relations manager.
