Coinbase, Ripple Leave Top 10 of LinkedIn's ‘Hottest’ Startups List

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple, the blockchain startup behind XRP, have fallen out of the top 10 of this year’s business and employment-oriented service Linkedln’s “The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for” list.

According to LinkedIn’s new list published on Sept. 4, Ripple moved to the 28th place (was seventh in 2018) while Coinbase’s position was downgraded to 29th (was third in 2018). Stock and crypto trading startup Robinhood mostly retained its position, moving from the sixth place in 2018 to the 7th in 2019.

Crypto startups are falling out

On the other hand, Gemini Trust Company, the custodian of the crypto exchange lead by the Winklevoss twins, and Ethereum (ETH) development firm ConsenSys are not present in this year’s list at all. In 2019, they occupied the 25th and the 26th spots respectively.

Notably, LinkedIn’s 2019 list also includes computer software firm Plaid that specializes in fintech applications and offers its services to Coinbase, Robinhood, American Express, Venmo and other well-known companies.

A major player’s perspective

LinkedIn is arguably one of the biggest job finding and recruiting social media platforms. According to a report published in August by web hosting firm Kinsta, there are 575 million users registered on the platform, and searches for “LinkedIn” have more than doubled in the last 10 years.

It is noted that LinkedIn considers four main parameters during the evaluation process: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement and startups’ ability to attract talent from major companies. According to the new list, the top three startups this year are cloud data firm Snowflake, cannabis dose pen startup Dosist and Internet of Things platform Samsara.

As Cointelegraph reported in February, the Forbes 2019 “Fintech 50” list of the world’s top financial technology firms featured six blockchain companies, little more than half of the amount listed in the 2018 edition.