Early Friday morning, retail-focused cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, the third largest company in the sector by head count, announced it would lay off 20% of its staff.
“We grew ambitiously in early 2022, building incredible momentum and aligning ourselves with the trajectory of the broader industry, whose trajectory changed rapidly at the confluence of negative economic developments. We did,” Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said in a blog post.
“We have had to navigate ongoing economic headwinds and unpredictable industry events,” he added.
After Friday’s cuts, Crypto.com employs an estimated 3,600 to 4,500 people. The company last year announced Laid off 5% of the workforce, or 260 employees, in June. Another layoff at the company between July and October reportedly involved an additional 2,000 employees.
A company spokesperson would not comment on Crypto.com’s current headcount.
Hit by investor appetite for riskier assets, cryptocurrency prices plummeted last year, leading to the bankruptcy of some highly leveraged investors. Its effects continue to ripple through the industry in the form of layoffs and bankruptcies.
In announcing Friday’s job cuts, Marszalek specifically pointed to the collapse of FTX, which “severely undermined confidence in the industry.”
Just two weeks into 2023, crypto companies have already laid off more than 2,600 workers, according to a tally by Yahoo Finance.
Crypto.com’s job cuts follow those by Blockchain.com, first reported by CoinDesk and confirmed by a Blockchain.com spokesperson. This represents his 28% of the workforce, or his 110 employees worldwide.
Other layoffs announced in the crypto industry since January 5 include Consensys (at least 10% of the team, or 100 employees), Coinbase (20% of the team, or 950 employees), Includes Huobi (20% of the team, or 200 employees). Genesis (his 30% of the team, or an estimated 60 employees), Silvergate (his 40% of staff, or 200 employees), and the NFT platform super rare (30% of staff, or an estimated 27 employees).
These layoffs add to at least 9,500 workers laid off from companies in the once-tumultuous and now capital-constrained sector, according to The Block Research’s annual report.
Meanwhile, Binance, the industry’s largest player that hasn’t announced any layoffs since the cryptocurrency began plummeting last May, plans to expand its workforce by up to 30% in 2023, according to the CEO. said Changpeng Zhao at a meeting on Wednesday.
According to Block Research, Binance will have approximately 7,300 employees by the end of 2022, up from 650 as of October 2019.
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