Almost half of all people working in the blockchain industry are employed by cryptocurrency exchanges, new research from industry-focused publication The Block reveals.

The Block published the research results on Oct. 23, stating that 42% of people at 158 analyzed companies work for digital currency exchanges, with around 7,700 people combined working at 30 different exchanges.

Crypto exchanges are followed by crypto mining equipment producers, comprising 11% of blockchain industry employees. 10% of the surveyed employees work for various cryptocurrency governing foundations, with Ripple, TRON, Block.one and IOHK being the largest employers in that sector.

Out of the analyzed 158 companies involved in cryptocurrencies and blockchain, Bitmain, Huobi, Coinbase and OKEx take the lead in terms of the numbers of people employed, with 1,500, 1,300, 1,000 and 950 employees, respectively. Binance and Ripple’s staff consists of around 650 and 450 employees respectively.

Crypto and blockchain firms rank among the best places to work

As reported in September, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple fell out of the top-10 of Linkedln’s “The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for” list. Stock and crypto trading startup Robinhood mostly retained its position, moving from the sixth place in 2018 to the seventh in 2019.

Ripple was ranked as one of the best employers in the technology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. At the time, 91% of employees reportedly said that Ripple is a great place to work at, with 95 percent of the surveyed claiming that they are proud to tell others they work there.

In June, LinkedIn named blockchain as one of the top-10 most important employee skills in the Asia Pacific region.