Crypto companies tempt top talent away from Big Tech to build ‘Web3’

Executives at tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon are quitting to take jobs in the buzzy world of crypto.

Blockchain platforms such as Polygon and Circle have hired top talent from Big Tech firms lately, enticing them with the pitch of working on the next “big thing” in tech — Web 3.0, or Web3.

Ryan Wyatt left YouTube earlier this month to lead a new gaming studio from Polygon. Wyatt had joined the Google-owned video site back in 2014 to head up a push into video games content and compete more aggressively with Amazon’s Twitch platform. 

“When I started at YouTube Gaming almost eight years ago, I was the first person there,” Wyatt told CNBC in an interview. “We didn’t have a team. People were really starting to show interest in gaming video.”

“I look at this opportunity very much the same way,” he added, describing the current stage of blockchain development as “early” and “exciting.”

The buzz surrounding Web3 has attracted some of the brightest minds in tech. The Web3 movement proposes overhauling the internet in a way that would move popular online services over to decentralized technologies like blockchain.

The list of Silicon Valley talent jumping ship for crypto also includes Sherice Torres, the former chief marketing officer of Facebook’s crypto and payments unit, Novi. She was hired by Circle in January. And Amazon cloud exec Pravjit Tiwana fled to join crypto exchange Gemini as its chief technology officer.

David Marcus, the former head of Novi, resigned late last year. While he’s yet to unveil his next move, Marcus has been singing the praises of Web3 on Twitter.

“I’ve never felt this connected to a community of builders like the crypto/web3 one,” Marcus tweeted last month.

Experts say the tech executives are being drawn to the burgeoning industry in part due to its rapid growth.

“Naturally, people will want to work on what they view as the most exciting and innovative developments in the technology space, and currently, that is crypto and Web3,” Alex Bouaziz, CEO and co-founder of payroll software firm Deel, told CNBC.

“Many are seeing it as the future of the tech industry, in the same way that Facebook and Amazon were attractive in the past.”

According to data from Blind, a social network for tech professionals, bitcoin exchange Coinbase offers as much as $900,000 a year for software engineers.

Investment into crypto companies has surged, meaning they’ve got much more cash to spare on lucrative compensation packages for big hires. Blockchain start-ups raised a record $25 billion in venture capital last year, according to CB Insight figures.

Tech start-ups also typically let staff own a piece of their company through stock option schemes. With valuations for private crypto companies soaring, that…