MiCA, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, is no longer a future framework. It is how venues operate now. The first wave of CASP licences has been issued and the second is being processed. Hiring has shifted with it.
Three observations from running searches across regulated venues over the last six months.
Compliance is no longer an afterthought hire
The old crypto compliance hire, a generalist GRC profile added after the fact, is gone. Venues going through CASP authorisation are hiring subject-matter compliance leads with specific MiCA fluency: people who can read the technical standards, talk to the AFM or BaFin without a translator, and design surveillance frameworks that survive a regulatory inspection.
The pool of candidates who can do this credibly is currently measured in the low hundreds across all of Europe. Most of them are already employed. We're seeing comp expectations rise 25–40% year-on-year for this profile, with offers from London and Paris venues routinely matching what TradFi compliance leads were earning at exchange-listed firms.
Listings & market structure is the next bottleneck
If compliance was the hiring story of 2024–25, listings and market structure is the hiring story of 2026.
Once venues clear licensing, their attention moves to product. Which assets to list, on what terms, with what tier-2/tier-3 listing standards, and how to coordinate with cross-listing across European venues. This is technical work that needs people who've done it before.
The natural pool at LSE, Eurex, SIX and Euronext is finite, and most of those people are not drawn to crypto venues. The ones who do move usually take the same route: TradFi listings, then an infrastructure or institutional crypto firm, then a regulated venue. That is a career built over several steps, and it does not fill a search in three weeks.
What this means if you're hiring
A few practical points we've found ourselves saying repeatedly to clients:
- Move on compliance now, not after the licence arrives. The candidates worth hiring are being approached by your competitors already, and lead times are at least 8–12 weeks.
- Be honest about your stage. Senior listings or market structure leads can read a venue's maturity from one conversation. Pretending you're further along than you are wastes their time and yours.
- Hybrid candidates command a premium. Someone who has operated on both the TradFi and crypto sides of the table can save a year of internal back-and-forth. That is worth paying for.
The pace will compress further through 2026. If your venue is hiring through this wave, the firms that close searches fastest are the ones who scoped the role accurately on day one. If you want an outside read on whether a spec is realistic, get in touch. Often the most useful call is the one that stops a quarter of hiring for the wrong role.
