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BlackRock Is Paying $350,000 for Crypto Executives: Is Wall Street Digital Asset Takeover Just Getting Started?

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BlackRock Is Paying $350,000 for Crypto Executives: Is Wall Street Digital Asset Takeover Just Getting Started?

Leading Wall Street firms BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup are actively posting crypto jobs, not for experimental blockchain labs, but for permanent digital asset desks running live revenue operations. This is a structural build, not a pilot program.

The numbers confirm the scale. Crypto companies listed 5,154 open positions in early 2025, a 40%+ rise from late 2023.

BlackRock alone posted a New York Managing Director role for crypto at $270,000–$350,000. Goldman Sachs has disclosed $2 billion in crypto exposure. The ETF approval wasn’t a catalyst – it was the starting gun.

Key Takeaways:

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  • ETF Catalyst: Bitcoin ETF inflow recovery has forced Wall Street to staff permanent middle-office, trading, and compliance functions – roles that didn’t exist inside these firms two years ago.
  • Named Institutions: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup all carry active crypto job listings; JPMorgan posted a Lead Software Engineer for blockchain infrastructure.
  • Role Categories: Current demand centers on institutional trading, fund accounting, ETF market-making, digital asset compliance, and tokenization engineering – not R&D or innovation labs.
  • Compensation Signal: BlackRock’s Managing Director crypto role is listed at $270,000–$350,000; global crypto salaries rose 18% year-over-year into 2025, with North America offering the highest base pay.
  • Geographic Expansion: New York remains the primary hub, but Singapore crypto job listings surged 158% – signaling the institutional build is global, not domestic.
  • What to Watch: Whether TradFi retention packages can outcompete token incentives from crypto-native firms – that tension determines how fast these desks actually scale.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

What the Shift Actually Signals – and Why This Cycle Is Different From 2021

The last time Wall Street rushed into crypto jobs was 2021. That wave was driven by retail speculation, NFT hype, and internal pressure to appear innovative.

The 2022 FTX collapse and subsequent market crash wiped out more than 70% of crypto jobs globally – and most of those TradFi crypto units quietly dissolved with them.

This cycle is structurally different. The demand driver is regulated product infrastructure: spot Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum ETFs, and the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs).

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BlackRock’s IBIT has generated historic AUM growth, and that volume demands middle-office expansion – reconciliation, fund accounting, reporting – roles that are operational, not experimental.

iShares Bitcoin Trust(IBIT) Net Flow / Source: SOSOValue

Sam Wellalage, founder of recruitment agency WorkInCrypto, put it plainly: “When I speak with CEOs from TradFi who are now building digital assets, they consistently say the same thing: Crypto will ultimately be integrated into TradFi, not exist separately.” That framing matters – integration implies permanent headcount, not rotating project teams.

The regulatory environment has accelerated the timeline. The Trump administration’s pro-crypto posture – light-touch regulation, an explicit goal of making the US the crypto capital of the world – has given compliance and legal teams the green light to build rather than wait. Regulatory clarity at the federal level is precisely what makes a permanent digital asset division viable inside a bank that answers to the SEC.

Wellalage flagged the skills threshold that will define the 2026 hiring class: “Institutional recruitment in 2026 will be about finding digital asset leaders who can operate at the intersection of capital, markets, and regulation – not just crypto enthusiasm.” That distinction – capital plus markets plus regulation, not enthusiasm – is what separates this buildout from the 2021 experiment.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

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TradFi vs Crypto Desk: The Role Map

The talent pipeline runs in both directions, but the dominant flow right now is TradFi into institutional digital assets – and the role categories are specific. ETF market makers, crypto derivatives traders, digital asset compliance officers, tokenization engineers, and custody operations specialists are the positions drawing the most competitive offers.

BlackRock is staffing for senior portfolio and product roles that sit directly on top of IBIT’s operational infrastructure.

Goldman Sachs – which reported a significant uptick in clients trading crypto derivatives – is building on its existing trading desk capabilities. Citigroup posted a VP-level backend engineer for digital finance. JPMorgan, which launched its Onyx blockchain platform for tokenized assets in 2021, is now hiring lead engineers to scale that infrastructure rather than prototype it.

The skills that transfer cleanly from TradFi: fixed income structuring, derivatives risk management, fund accounting, regulatory compliance, and institutional sales. The skills that must be learned on the job: on-chain settlement mechanics, wallet custody architecture, tokenomics, and DeFi protocol risk – areas where crypto-native firms like Coinbase, Galaxy, and Grayscale still hold a decisive edge.

That edge is also a competitive threat. Platforms building permanent digital asset divisions – including exchange operators now operating under formal regulatory licenses – are drawing from the same talent pool as the bulge-bracket banks. The retention math favors whoever can offer the better blend of institutional prestige and upside exposure.

Compensation is already being used as a differentiator. Global crypto salaries rose 18% year-over-year into 2025. North America leads on base pay; Asia leads on growth rate, fueled in part by token grants. Singapore’s crypto job listings surged 158%, reflecting how aggressively regional hubs are competing for the same senior institutional profiles that New York firms are targeting.

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The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 22% demand growth for blockchain developers by 2026 – outpacing average tech roles by a wide margin. With institutional adoption locking in through regulated ETFs and RWA platforms, that demand curve isn’t softening.

Discover: The Best Crypto Presales Live Right Now

The post BlackRock Is Paying $350,000 for Crypto Executives: Is Wall Street Digital Asset Takeover Just Getting Started? appeared first on Cryptonews.

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XRP Price Prediction: Can These 6 Ongoing Developments Save Ripple

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XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin.

XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin. Down nearly 30% year-to-date from a $1.88 open, the token is fighting to hold key support while the broader market registers extreme fear. What most traders haven’t priced in yet: a significant engineering overhaul quietly underway inside the XRP Ledger’s core repository.

Denis Angell, an XRPL core developer, outlined six active workstreams on April 2 that are reshaping the ledger’s foundational infrastructure, telemetry, nomenclature, type safety, refactoring, logging, and documentation.

“I’ve never been more excited for the XRP Ledger core development than I am now,” Angell posted, describing the effort as tedious but critical.

The work targets backend reliability and developer experience rather than user-facing features, a distinction that matters for long-term network competitiveness.

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Whether these upgrades translate into price recovery depends entirely on market timing.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

XRP Price Prediction: $1.40 Before the Next Wave of Selling?

XRP’s current level of $1.31 places it uncomfortably below both major moving averages. The 50-day SMA sits at $1.40–$1.42, acting as immediate overhead resistance. The 200-day SMA at $2.04–$2.07 represents a full recovery target that feels distant given current momentum.

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XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin.
XRP USD, TradingView

Support is clustered at $1.27–$1.29. That zone is thin. A clean break below it opens a more significant leg down with limited structural floors until the $1.10 range. The Fear and Greed Index reading Fear confirms capitulation sentiment, which historically precedes either a sharp reversal or a final flush.

Analyst consensus points to $2.04 as a potential recovery level by September 2026, achievable, but requiring sustained buying pressure that simply isn’t visible in current volume data.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

Bitcoin Hyper Targets Early-Mover Upside as XRP Tests Critical Support

XRP’s -29.6% year-to-date performance raises a legitimate question: at a $1.31 price point and a multi-billion-dollar market cap, how much asymmetric upside actually remains? For traders comfortable with the risk profile of early-stage assets, the calculus looks different at the infrastructure layer.

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Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioning itself as a genuinely novel infrastructure play, the first Bitcoin Layer 2 integrating the Solana Virtual Machine, delivering sub-second finality and low-cost smart contract execution while anchored to Bitcoin’s security model.

The presale has raised $32 million at a current price of just $0.013678, with healthy staking rewards available for early participants. The Decentralized Canonical Bridge enables native BTC transfers into the ecosystem, addressing Bitcoin’s longstanding programmability gap without sacrificing its trust layer.

More detail on Bitcoin Hyper is available here.

The post XRP Price Prediction: Can These 6 Ongoing Developments Save Ripple appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Riot Platforms Offloads 3,778 BTC Worth Over $250M

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR

  • Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin for more than $250 million during the first quarter of 2025.
  • The company reduced its total Bitcoin holdings to 15,680 BTC after the sale.
  • Riot Platforms achieved an average selling price of over $76,000 per Bitcoin.
  • The firm has now sold Bitcoin in consecutive quarters after raising nearly $200 million late last year.
  • CEO Jason Les said earlier that sales were intended to fund ongoing growth and operations.

Riot Platforms sold more than $250 million in Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2025. The company confirmed it sold 3,778 BTC at an average price above $76,000. As a result, the firm reduced its total holdings to 15,680 BTC by the end of March.

Riot Platforms Cuts Bitcoin Holdings as Sales Extend Into Second Quarter

Riot Platforms reported that it sold 3,778 Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2025. The company achieved an average sale price above $76,000 per coin. Consequently, it reduced its Bitcoin reserves to 15,680 BTC at quarter’s end. The remaining holdings now carry a market value near $1.04 billion. Bitcoin traded at $66,844 at the time of valuation.

The Colorado-based miner has now sold Bitcoin in consecutive quarters. During November and December, it generated nearly $200 million from Bitcoin sales. The company has not yet disclosed detailed allocation plans for the recent proceeds. A company representative did not respond to a request for comment. However, earlier in 2025, CEO Jason Les addressed the purpose of prior sales.

Les stated that earlier Bitcoin sales aimed to “fund ongoing growth and operations.” He connected those operations to expanding infrastructure and computing capacity. The company outlined these objectives in its latest strategic business update. Riot Platforms has focused on increasing its data center capabilities. It also continues to adjust its capital structure through asset sales.

Riot Platforms Shifts Strategy Toward Data Center Development

Riot Platforms confirmed that it intends to expand beyond traditional Bitcoin mining. The firm stated that it plans to unlock its nearly two-gigawatt power portfolio. It aims to deploy that capacity for high-demand data center infrastructure. Les said, “2025 marked a watershed year for Riot.” He added that the company has transformed its future trajectory.

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The company explained that it previously used most of its power portfolio for Bitcoin mining. Now, it seeks to reallocate that capacity toward data center development. Riot Platforms stated that its long-term goal is “to fully utilize our power portfolio for data center development.” This shift aligns with ongoing operational restructuring. The firm continues to balance mining output with infrastructure planning.

An activist investor, Starboard Value, urged the company to accelerate its transition strategy. Starboard Value stated that the opportunity could add as much as $21 billion to Riot’s valuation. The investor called for a “renewed sense of urgency” in pursuing this plan. Meanwhile, shares of RIOT closed up 2.47% on Thursday. The stock recently traded at $12.86.

Over the past six months, RIOT shares have fallen more than 33%. During the same period, Bitcoin has declined 47% from its all-time high of $126,080. The company continues to report updates through formal filings and public statements. Riot Platforms has not announced further Bitcoin sales beyond the first quarter.

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Kalshi Onboards Ex-Democratic Strategist amid Legal Troubles

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Law, United States, Policy, Kalshi, Prediction Markets

Stephanie Cutter will join the prediction markets company as a policy adviser, having previously worked in Democratic lawmakers’ campaigns.

Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that a former staffer of US President Barack Obama had joined the company as a policy adviser.

In a Thursday notice, Kalshi said Stephanie Cutter would join the prediction markets company from Precision Strategies, a communications firm she co-founded in 2013. Kalshi said the addition of Cutter came as the company planned to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country.”

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Law, United States, Policy, Kalshi, Prediction Markets
Source: Stephanie Cutter

According to Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Cutter’s experience allowed her to “get [the] message to the right people,” highlighting her background in government and politics. The predictions market already has staff with ties to the US government, including the appointment of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a strategic adviser in January 2025, the week before his father took office.

In the last year, Kalshi has come under scrutiny from many US state-level authorities, who have filed lawsuits against the platform and other companies offering event contracts on prediction markets for sports, alleging that they constituted illegal bets.

Under Trump nominee Michael Selig, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has claimed that the agency has the “exclusive jurisdiction” to oversee such markets, filing lawsuits against state gaming regulators.

Related: Polymarket expands into equities and commodities with Pyth price feeds

Lawsuits and proposed legislation

Many Democrats in US Congress have also called for scrutiny into prediction markets after what they called “suspicious trades” related to the country’s invasion of Iran. Although Kalshi and Polymarket announced plans in March to implement guardrails to prevent accounts from using insider information, some lawmakers introduced legislation that could ban politicians from engaging in such bets on prediction markets.

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As of Friday, none of the bills proposed in Congress had been signed into law, and it was unclear what the outcome would be for many of the state-level lawsuits.

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