The Solana Memecoin Mania Has Contributed to an Increase in Demand for Rust Engineers

The Solana memecoin mania that began in the first half of 2024 has  contributed to an increase in demand for Rust engineers

Solana memecoins have seen a surge in popularity, contributing to an increase in demand for Rust engineers, according to the CEO of a cryptocurrency jobs board.

Raman Shalupau, CEO and founder of CryptoJobsList, told Cointelegraph that the demand for Rust engineers is likely being driven by the "Solana memecoin mania."

“Solana memecoins currently boast a combined market cap of $6.28 billion — significantly larger than Ethereum layer 2 Base’s $1.2 billion memecoin market cap,” CoinGecko data shows.

Rust has been gaining attention as a programming language for writing smart contracts since the Solana blockchain launched in March, 2020.

CryptoJobsList’s website shows 99 Rust developer roles are vacant, compared to 45 for Solidity.

“We saw 32 Rust programming language related jobs in the last 3 months alone,” Shalupau added.

The increase in Rust roles has contributed to a 12-month record 564 crypto jobs posted on CryptoJobsList in July — marking a 109% increase from the previous month.

Kevin Gibson, founder of cryptocurrency recruitment firm Proof of Search, also told Cointelegraph that he has seen more demand for Rust engineers and developers.

Gibson believes “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) hiring will kick off when Bitcoin hits $100,000.

“Those who have held their positions throughout the bear market will have multiple offers between 30-50% higher than their current salaries as budgets are still very tight,” Gibson noted.

CryptoJobsList’s salary data shows the average cryptocurrency employee is making $88,000, while those in the top 10% percentile are making $165,000.

Meanwhile CryptoRecruit’s founder Neil Dundon told Cointelegraph his firm has seen slightly less demand for developer roles but an uptick in sales-related roles.