At least 14 crypto companies, including Coinbase, Gemini, Digital Currency Group, ConsenSys, and Blockchain.com, announced staff reductions in the month.
In the first month of 2023, crypto companies tightened their budgets, firing at least 2,900 employees from 14 crypto companies.
Prime Trust, a provider of crypto infrastructure, is said to have started laying off employees, reducing its workforce by a third.
As of the time this article was written, Prime had 312 employees on LinkedIn. As a result, the reduction would amount to roughly a 100-person reduction.
According to a Bloomberg report from January 27, the crypto platform Matrixport laid off 30 employees, and The Information reported on January 23 that the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini laid off approximately 100 employees.
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, was the one to initiate the largest staff reduction for the month, cutting its headcount by approximately 950 employees on January 10.
Crypto.com, Luno, and Huobi, its peer exchanges, followed with reductions of approximately 500, 330, and 320 employees, respectively.
As the company navigates a financial crisis, embattled crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its subsidiaries experienced significant layoffs, with 485 employees fired in January alone.
The DCG-owned Luno saw the most layoffs, followed by DCG with 66 layoffs, Genesis, DCG’s subsidiary lending platform, with 63 layoffs, and HQ Digital, DCG’s asset management firm, with 26 layoffs.
The 200 employees let go by crypto bank Silvergate, the 110 employees cut from the Blockchain.com exchange, and the 96 employees let go by MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys, rounded out the list.
In the meantime, the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare laid off 20 employees.
Despite Bitcoin (BTC)’s strong performance throughout the month, these staff cuts were necessary because institutional demand has continued to rise.
However, the widespread layoffs in the crypto industry were not the only ones. In the month of January alone, only four businesses laid off approximately 48,000 employees: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Salesforce
Pantera Capital, a crypto hedge fund, claims that bear markets provide “less noise and distraction from building,” despite the fact that some individuals may believe that more doom lies ahead.
