Author: TT3 Labs

Preface

Before we dive into this observation report, let’s take some time to calibrate the coordinate system of this observation.

As a remote opportunity recruitment platform focusing on the Chinese-speaking market, TT3 Labs inevitably has limitations in our perspective; we cannot glimpse the entirety of the Web3 world, nor can we cover the recruitment ecology of the English-speaking community. The data in this report originates solely from our backend operational data from the fourth quarter of 2025 to February 1, 2026, supplemented by community interviews and cross-verified public information. We are aware that due to sample size constraints, there may be certain biases, but micro-level data often yields some insights. If possible, we hope it can serve as a small signpost on the long journey of practitioners.

Chapter 1: The Rise of Thrust and Barriers, as the "Halo of Big Companies" Encounters "Degree Deflation"

"Web3 is increasingly resembling the Web2 we tried to escape."

1.1 Why are so many people suddenly crowding here?

The structural spillover of the Web2 job market is not an emotional judgment but is composed of a dual pressure from physical layoffs and industry direction adjustments. Mature platforms represented by Alibaba have completed mass layoffs of thousands through organizational flattening, reporting a total employee count of 204,891 by the end of the 2024 fiscal year, a reduction of over 15,000 from the 2023 fiscal year; on the other hand, companies like Baidu and ByteDance, with relatively stable employee numbers, are also experiencing intense "transformation," reducing traditional operations, functions, and mature businesses under maintenance, while replacing them with AI algorithms and globally sourced talent. This reorientation of business direction results in a significant outflow of mid-level and technical backbone employees with senior internet experience, who do not fit into the logic of new business schemas.

For many middle managers and traditional tech stack engineers, the layoffs at Alibaba mean job losses, while the transformations at Baidu and ByteDance signal experience becoming irrelevant. This net outflow of talent and changes in the employment structure have a considerable impact on the talent market.

Backend operational data indicates a continual increase in applicants from traditional internet backgrounds, with a noticeable rise in candidates with more than six months of gap time. At the same time, more people are viewing Web3 as a "risk-averse transition" rather than an "interest-driven entry." In our preparation for this article, we interviewed several job seekers who expressed a desire to find an escape from anxiety about turning 35 and workplace competition in Web3.

1.2 The Economic Account Behind "Degree Deflation"

However, the barriers to finding new exits are rising. In our TT3 Labs system, we define companies with a workforce of 0-50 as "startup teams." Even among these "small but beautiful" teams, recruitment thresholds have quietly risen.

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

Among the new startup positions added from Q4 2025 to February 1, 2026, approximately 46% require a bachelor's degree or higher, while over 3% explicitly state clear educational thresholds such as "985/211" or "QS Top XX" as preferred. When a startup Web3 company offers a salary equivalent to RMB 350,000 to 450,000 per year, in the current domestic job market, this budget is sufficient to recruit a graduate from a prestigious university with over three years of experience.

This elite selection process aligning with traditional industries also signifies that Web3 recruitment has transitioned from the early stage of "heroism regardless of origin" into a more stringent selection phase.

1.3 The Ineffectiveness of Big Company Endorsements and the Hidden Barriers of TOP CEX

Compared to the blunt academic requirements of startup teams, TOP 10 mainstream exchanges (CEX) are more cautious with their wording in job descriptions, generally avoiding fixed age or educational restrictions, but the hidden industry barriers have become increasingly difficult to overcome.

Analysis of the initial screening pass rates for candidates shows that HR from most platforms unhesitatingly prefers candidates with two years of industry experience over generic technical experts from big companies without industry experience.

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

This is not because the technical skills of the overflow personnel from big companies are weak, but rather due to the nature of business at CEX. The core narrative of China's internet giants revolves around traffic, while CEX, as a mainstream employer in the Chinese-speaking Web3 sector, is closer to fintech and asset risk control.

For CEX, a person with trading experience, who understands blockchain logic and terms like "perpetual contracts" and "on-chain transactions," can significantly decrease communication costs. Thus, the weight of industry knowledge (Know-how) currently far outweighs general skills. With nearly seventy percent of positions being unfriendly to candidates with no experience, a large number of potential entrants can only compete for the remaining third of opportunities.

1.4 The Absurdity and Practicality of "Downgraded Leveling"

The soft barriers of industry experience have given rise to a pragmatic job-seeking strategy. In our community discussions, many experienced individuals provide "practical advice" to newcomers: to gain the key to the core circle, software engineers who graduated years ago are recommended to take internships or volunteer roles at smaller DEX (decentralized exchanges) or early-stage projects, and employers are willing to accept such mature candidates for these "internships." Job seekers accept monthly salaries of a few hundred dollars or even work for free, only to add a segment of "on-chain" project experience to their resumes, compensating for the ineffectiveness of the big company halo in the face of industry barriers. This is an evident form of employment exploitation, yet a large number of candidates in the job market acknowledge this approach in hopes of gaining a competitive advantage, reflecting the allure of this industry.

Chapter 2: Misalignment and Employers, What Are Mainstream Employers Looking for in the Talent Market?

"The mismatch in talent supply and demand is not scary; the cognitive deviation of practitioners towards the industry is far more frightening."

2.1 The Unavoidable Largest Employer: CEX

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

Although the decentralized narrative (DeFi/DAO) is the spiritual totem of the industry, in the current Chinese-speaking job market, CEX (centralized exchanges) and their ecosystem companies remain the absolute largest job providers, at least on this platform. Compared to the unstable project parties, CEX has more disclosed information, a more stable brand image, and higher discussion heat on social media, which directly translates to a more transparent employer reputation, and trust is the most valuable asset in this industry.

In this environment, many potential candidates who have not entered the industry often equate CEX with Web3. Although CEX is many people's first contact with this field, a centralized organization cannot entirely represent the future of decentralized narratives. Since CEX is essentially a financial infrastructure for transaction matching and asset custody, profiting from trading fees and market betting behaviors, these employers will have stricter requirements for risk control and human efficiency during market fluctuations.

In a public interview during Binance Blockchain Week in December 2025, Binance's co-CEO He Yi referred to "insufficient talent density" as the biggest challenge currently facing the organization. Analysis of platform data and interviews revealed that the TOP 5 CEX easily receive over a hundred applications from various channels like TG, their websites, and referrals when posting new job openings, but the average closing cycle for these positions on this platform is as long as 25 days. This indicates that there is still substantial room for improvement in daily active users on this platform and suggests that even leading companies find it challenging to locate ideal employees. The so-called ideal employee must be divided into two parts: one is that candidates need to meet the employer's ideal expectations for employee profiles, and the other is whether employees themselves have ideals and expectations for this industry—not merely seeking quick money due to cognitive biases about the industry.

2.2 The Disappearance of Middle Management: The Truth About "Downgrading" from Team Leaders to Executives

We tracked dozens of experienced candidates applying through TT3 and found a clear phenomenon of "level compression":

Candidates who indicate having non-Web3 team management experience in their resumes often transition into roles like Senior Developer or Senior Analyst upon changing jobs. It is not uncommon for management personnel to revert to execution roles; the logic behind this, aside from the difficulties of converting experience for industry newcomers, includes several possibilities:

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

1. Scale Constraints: Even though people often compare mainstream exchanges with top-tier internet companies like ByteDance and Tencent on social media, aside from a few top-tier CEX having thousands of employees, the vast majority of Web3 project teams have only hundreds or dozens of people.

2. Flat Organizational Structure Due to Single Business Nature: Because the existing business scenarios of mainstream CEX are still limited, various tokenized new businesses are being incubated and explored, and compared to the multiple BG/BU divisions in internet companies, the relatively singular fee-based business model of CEX cannot support a large middle management group.

Whether it is a token project, U Card organization, or various exchanges, a company's new performance greatly relies on market conditions or heavily depends on the performance of external KOLs and part-time business development, leading employers to have long-term anxieties about performance. This results in extremely sensitive hiring strategies; once performance declines, they generally adopt contraction strategies regarding human resource investments.

This sense of drifting makes many people feel they're standing on a plank, leading more practitioners to prefer shifting jobs frequently, or even working multiple jobs with different employers simultaneously, resulting in a lack of belonging and recognition toward the company. Data sampling surveys show that the average employment duration for existing users in Web3 is only 8.6 months. A significant number of workers only seek to make quick money, which has become an industry consensus akin to being paid in U.

Chapter 3: Salary Payments and Disenchantment, Costs Hidden in Plain Sight

"When 'getting paid in U' is not just an industry consensus, but a societal perception, its risks and rewards begin to be seriously calculated."

3.1 From "Fraud Prevention" to "Insurance": The Shift in Focus

Friends who followed the "Where is TT3" social media account early on may remember a controversial post we published in Q3 2025 titled "The Moment I Received a Web3 Offer, I Hesitated Instead." At that time, the comments were filled with questions and doubts about "Is getting paid in U reliable?" and "Will companies I haven't visited run away?". The concerns of netizens at that time represented a portion of potential practitioners' "high-risk awareness."

Just two quarters later, compliance news regarding stablecoins emerged in quick succession, such as the implementation of Hong Kong's "Stablecoins Ordinance" on August 1, 2025, and the regulation of fiat-backed stablecoin issuance entering a licensing supervisory framework, as reported by mainstream media. The inquiries and doubts surrounding "payment security" in the community have significantly decreased. Everyone's focus has shifted to more practical issues: such as social security funds, tax compliance, and other common labor and capital concerns. "U-based compensation" has gradually shed its stigma, but some fundamental labor-related issues continue to trouble newcomers, impacting their career decisions. We look forward to increased compliance of business entities to promote standardization in employer practices, leading to progressively improved protections for workers in the future.

3.2 Salary Distribution: The Convergence of Explicit Premiums

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

We observe that the mainstream salaries on the TT3 platform range from $3,000 to $5,000, and considering the proportion of "take-home pay," the industry still offers decent returns. In traditional technical/operations roles, there is a certain overlap in median salaries provided by Web3 and those offered by traditional internet industries.

However, high-paying positions above $8,000 are mainly concentrated in a very small number of core protocol positions and roles that can significantly contribute to the company's growth. For most regular positions, the premiums have converged, and an increasing number of customer service and operations positions are being posted with salaries below $3,000; Web3 is no longer an era where everyone can earn high salaries. Job seekers are using "lack of social security," "occupational instability," and other "policy risks" that are rarely addressed in traditional industries as substantial hidden costs to trade for the ideal "geographical freedom."

However, this comparison is inherently unfair, as people often compare the salaries of top internet companies to those of a second or third-tier company in the Web3 sector, reasoning using a strategic approach to conclude that "this industry or certain positions within the company are not worth pursuing." In reality, top-quality positions in any industry are scarce and highly competitive, and differences in salary payment capabilities between leading firms across industries can be immense due to industry disparities.

Chapter 4: The Walled City, Identity Anxiety and "Dual Migration"

"As the compliance grid tightens, the middle ground for digital nomads is being continuously compressed."

4.1 Starting from the "Visa Anxiety" in Singapore

Starting from Q4 2025, we have clearly sensed in our communications with candidates that talent based in Singapore is increasingly focused on "visa" issues. Due to the tightening of licenses and clear business scope in Singapore in 2025, many organizations are forced to migrate anew. When compliance red lines are tightened, those who once hoped to solve identity problems through Web3 talent are compelled to seek new paths under the pressure of being unable to renew work visas (EP/SP). Over the past eight years, many companies have migrated in a nomadic manner, where companies can stabilize their operations by obtaining compliance licenses, while more offshore practitioners without resolving their overseas identities remain disconnected from their community.

4.2 Position Mobility and the Outbound Journey of Digital Nomads

At the same time, compliance on the job side is also tightening. We observe an increasing number of sensitive positions, especially those involving user data, personnel, visas, salary management, and funds operation, showing a higher proportion of restrictions such as 'work authorization / nationality preference,' even extreme descriptions like "Non-CN preferred," making the candidate's location one of the main considerations for employers.

* Data source: TT3 Labs, internal operational data as of February 1, 2026.

This situation has prompted a new wave of migration. The IP activity map of TT3 shows a continuous rise in IP activity in Southeast Asia. On one hand, Southeast Asia already possesses a large pool of multilingual talent, and a considerable number of Chinese-speaking talents are engaging in geographical arbitrage, earning globally competitive salaries while living in low-cost regions to enjoy a high quality of life.

At the same time, some operational positions targeting the Chinese-speaking market are shifting from Chinese employees to Malaysian, Thai Chinese, or foreign personnel who are fluent in Chinese. They possess language advantages and bear no compliance burdens, becoming the new favorites in the Web3 Chinese-speaking job market.

Conclusion

The Web3 job market in Q1 2026 is experiencing the growing pains of a return to common sense. "Stories of 'getting rich overnight' will forever be repeated on KOLs' X and Instagram, but rumors of ordinary practitioners getting rich overnight are becoming increasingly rare." As the employment environment of the entire industry becomes clearer and more transparent, it also means that leapfrogging opportunities are diminishing.

As our website footer states: "Start your new remote career adventure," every brand new day is a new adventure for us. The winter from late 2025 to early 2026 is hard to endure; the vision for welcoming spring is not as beautiful as imagined, with some getting off the train while others are boarding; the K-line charts do not conceal the lights illuminating your path ahead, your belief is that light.

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