They fled Wall Street for crypto. They have few regrets.

First, the stablecoin TerraUSD collapsed. Then the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital went under, dragging Voyager Digital and Celsius Network down with it.

In the latest blow, Sam Bankman-Fried's empire — once considered a crypto savior — imploded, causing a crisis of confidence that's wiped out billions of dollars and is spreading to companies across the industry.

Angel Garcia/Bloomberg

Despite the massive losses and growing criticism that the industry is rife with fraudsters and Ponzi schemes, a dozen industry employees interviewed by Bloomberg News said that while they're rattled by the crisis, they remain committed to crypto and its potential — even if that means enduring financial pain personally and professionally.

Many gave up stable careers at big Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. They've watched as their personal investments evaporate and bonuses paid in crypto disappear. As jobs are cut and bankruptcies pile up, there are myriad reasons to head for the exits. But for now, the true believers are unbowed, arguing that crypto's long-term future hasn't been tainted by what they see as growing pains and a few bad actors.

Take Regan O'Malley, who turned down an offer at JPMorgan to work at a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO. The 22-year-old "fell in love" with crypto during her last semester at the University of Southern California, and decided to join Opyn, which focuses on DeFi derivatives and options infrastructure.

Although she said the company didn't have any direct exposure to FTX, the price plunge across the industry has impacted the organization. And she personally lost "six figures" in the crash.

"It's crazy to me that this even happened," she said. "I think it set the industry back years. But crypto isn't going anywhere — hopefully it's a learning moment."

Blind faith

That kind of optimism — in the face of an estimated $200 billion in losses throughout the crypto industry just in the past week — may seem misguided, or even delusional. Yet for the young people who came of age during wild technological advancements and watched the crypto space evolve from nothing into a multibillion-dollar industry, it makes sense.

In the war over talent, Wall Street leverages fatter paychecks and multimillion-dollar bonuses to lure desirable candidates. Silicon Valley pitches a hip workplace with flexible work options, cold brew on tap and equity for all. But the crypto industry sold an appealing vision of the future.

It wasn't just lower-level employees who were lured by the promise of crypto. FTX's chief operating officer Constance Wang previously worked on risk controls at Credit Suisse, and Bankman-Fried himself made his foray into the industry after leaving the quant trading firm Jane Street.

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Tegan Kline, who left Barclays in 2018 to work on a blockchain project, said she was drawn to crypto because of the idea that blockchain technology could be used to build a better financial system. Even now, she has no regrets about walking away from the five-figure bonus. Her years of working 100-hour weeks at the bank had left her feeling drained, and she liked the flexibility offered by a career in crypto.

She later co-founded the team Edge & Node, which is behind a project that aims to organize the world's open-source blockchain data.

"Even if I was offered 50 times my salary I still would have left," she said. "It's more impactful to be building the future of the internet instead of working for high-net-worth clients."

Uninspiring alternatives

Even those who may want to jump ship aren't seeing many appealing job openings right now.

Taylor Vowell quit his "cushy" 9-to-5 as the head of digital marketing for a broadcast media company earlier this year to work full-time on an NFT project for sports collectibles. Then, his business plan was ruined after a rout in digital currencies slashed the value of the Ether he raised from $150,000 to about $48,000.

That hit, plus six figures worth of personal losses, briefly forced him to consider applying for full-time jobs again, but he ultimately decided to brave the crypto storm. News of big layoffs at major tech firms have shown him job security is no longer a guarantee in the broader labor market, he said.

"Seeing what's happening with the Meta and Twitter mass layoffs, those are people's dream jobs," he said. "It's scary in traditional Web2 also and that's been a motivator for me to keep going."

For Sam Peurifoy, partner at the crypto venture capital firm Hivemind, the FTX collapse could help wash out "the garbage" that's flocked to the crypto space during the market frenzy of the past two years. He left his job at Goldman Sachs during the pandemic to work in crypto full time.

"There's going to be a ton of knock-on effects across the crypto market that won't come to light for at least another 30 to 60 days," he said, especially since some firms were using FTX as their "crypto bank."

But he still believes in the promises of Web3, particularly the goals of transparency and self-sovereign ownership.

"My faith in the industry is entirely unshaken," he said.