The Best U.S. Cities To Work in Blockchain

Blockchain technology is rapidly transforming how some industries store their data, thus creating new job opportunities and shaping the economic landscape of cities across the U.S.

With more and more applications popping up, blockchain technology is disrupting how companies store their data. That’s why we decided to take a look at the growth of blockchain — specifically, the career growth opportunities.

Our study analyzes key factors such as blockchain job availability, average salaries, and the adoption of blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrencies, to find the best cities for blockchain professionals.

From tech hubs like San Francisco and New York City to emerging centers like Austin, our findings reveal where the most promising opportunities lie and highlight regional trends in blockchain adoption.

Whether you’re seeking high salaries, numerous job opportunities, or a strong tech community, these cities are leading the way in the blockchain industry.

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology best known as the ledger where cryptocurrency payments are kept. However, its growth over the years has led to increasing process efficiencies and cutting costs across several data-focused industries.

Our ranking of the best U.S. cities to work in blockchain considers factors such as job availability, average salaries, and the adoption of and interest in technologies where cryptocurrency and other blockchain tech is commonly used.

Unsurprisingly, regions known for incubating tech giants top our list, while more rural areas lag behind.

The Best Cities To Work in Blockchain

The top five cities to work in blockchain are as follows:

1. San Francisco, CA — Total score: 83.13 out of 100
2. Seattle, WA — Total score: 82.85 out of 100
3. New York, NY — Total score: 78.94 out of 100
4. San Jose, CA — Total score: 78.76 out of 100
5. Austin, TX — Total score: 78.23 out of 100

These cities lead the pack due to their abundance of blockchain job opportunities and the presence of offices for numerous blockchain companies.

According to Zip Recruiter, the average salary for blockchain jobs in four of these cities exceeds $115,000. The exception is Austin, TX, where the average salary is approximately $103,765.

The Worst Cities To Work in Blockchain

At the other end of the spectrum, these five cities were found to be the least blockchain-friendly:

1. Jackson, MS — Total score: 16.99 out of 100
2. Knoxville, TN — Total score: 26.36 out of 100
3. Baton Rouge, LA — Total score: 28.79 out of 100
4. Columbia, SC — Total score: 29.88 out of 100
5. Scranton, PA — Total score: 29.93 out of 100

These cities rank poorly due to fewer blockchain job opportunities and lower salaries.

Additionally, they seem to be slower in adopting technologies related to blockchain because they have far fewer businesses accepting Bitcoin as payment and fewer cryptocurrency ATMs per 100K people in the city.

Search interest in blockchain-related topics is also much lower than in other cities in our study.

To determine the best cities to work in blockchain, we analyzed several data points on a local level. These included the number of blockchain jobs advertised locally, average salaries, the presence of blockchain offices, and the adoption of cryptocurrency in everyday business.

Below, we break down the top-performing cities for several of the most important factors we considered.

Number of Blockchain Jobs Advertised Locally

Job availability is an indicator of an industry’s importance to an area. We used LinkedIn to get a list of blockchain jobs being filled in cities across the U.S. We removed completely remote opportunities to focus on locally advertised ones.

This gives us a strong indicator of how much stock a city puts on hiring people in blockchain. The median number of blockchain job postings for our studied cities was seven. Some cities significantly surpass this number:

• New York, NY — 369 job postings
• San Francisco, CA — 242 job postings
• San Jose, CA — 140 job postings

New York significantly leads the number of blockchain jobs advertised.

Average Salary for Blockchain Jobs

The national average salary for blockchain jobs is $102,838, including positions across all levels, from entry to senior positions. High salaries are a strong incentive for professionals to consider when deciding where to work, so cities with higher salaries fared better in our index.

These cities offer the highest average salaries for those working in blockchain, according to Zip Recruiter:

• San Francisco, CA — $123,338
• San Jose, CA — $122,691
• Seattle, WA — $119,135

Unsurprisingly, the cities that offer the highest-paying blockchain jobs are major tech hubs on the West Coast.

Number of Blockchain Companies With Offices

Companies that have actual office spaces are becoming a bit of an endangered species, especially in tech, so the presence of blockchain companies with physical locations indicates an ecosystem with plenty of opportunities for networking and career growth.

The median number of such companies in the cities we studied was just one. Cities that far surpass that number are:

• San Francisco, CA — 114 companies
  • Notable Names: Cash App, Block, Securitize
• New York, NY — 113 companies
  • Notable Names: Hiro Systems, TBD, CertiK
• Los Angeles, CA — 34 companies
  • Quest Global Technologies, Blockchain Council, Gem
• Miami, FL — 34 companies
  • Ava Labs, QuickNode, Augusta Hitech

The data shows San Francisco still has a booming in-office tech culture in a post-Covid remote work era.

Businesses Accepting Bitcoin Payment per 100K People

One indicator that a city welcomes disruptive technologies like blockchain is cryptocurrency adoption by everyday businesses. The average number of businesses accepting Bitcoin as payment per 100K people is 0.42, but some cities really stand out:

• Wichita, KS — 4.32 businesses per 100K
• Kansas City, MO — 2.82 businesses per 100K
• Austin, TX — 2.13 businesses per 100K

Interestingly, these regions outperform cities like San Francisco and Seattle for businesses accepting Bitcoin payments.

Cryptocurrency ATMs per 100K People

Beyond businesses accepting it as payment, another sign that cities are open to emerging tech like blockchain is the prevalence of cryptocurrency ATMs that provide easier access to digital currencies.

The leading cities in this metric are:

• Fort Myers, FL — 5.33 ATMs per 100K
• Harrisburg, PA — 4.7 ATMs per 100K
• El Paso, TX — 4.59 ATMs per 100K
• Colorado Springs, CO — 4.59 ATMs per 100K

The national average is 2.37 ATMs per 100K people.

Our analysis highlights the cities that offer the best opportunities for blockchain professionals.

San Francisco, New York, and Seattle lead the pack when it comes to career opportunities, while cities like Austin and Los Angeles stand out because of their quick adoption of blockchain-related technologies.

These cities, along with other tech hubs, provide healthy ecosystems for blockchain innovation and career growth.

To determine the best cities to work in blockchain, we started with a list of the 100 most populated cities in the U.S.

We then identified 10 factors relevant to someone looking for a career in the field, including job opportunities, salaries, and regional adoption of blockchain-based technologies (like cryptocurrency, for example).

We assigned cities a score of zero to five for each factor based on how well they performed in each data point we considered across all the cities in the study. We summed all 10 individual, weighted factor scores to reach a total score between zero and 100 for each city.

The closer a city was to 100, the more equipped it was for those looking to work in blockchain.