As digital currency prices have slid significantly in value during the past few months, the bear market cycle is starting to take its toll on the crypto industry’s workforce. On June 2, Gemini’s co-founders the Winklevoss brothers revealed the company would lay off 10% of its employees. The same day, one of the Middle East’s largest digital currency exchanges, Rain Financial revealed it had to lay off dozens of employees. Rain’s CEO said as cryptocurrency markets have slowed down, it has “impacted businesses across the globe.”
7 Crypto Firms Require Workforce Cuts
As a result of the cryptocurrency bear market decline, 2022 looks remarkably like 2018’s second half. Many crypto companies are starting to let go employees. The start of the layoff news started in April when Robinhood announced it had to lay off roughly 9% of the company’s workforce.
Bitcoin.com News published a May report that Bitso had laid off 80 workers due to crypto bear markets. Not too long after Bitso’s announcement, the Coinbase-backed 2TM, the largest Latin American crypto exchange detailed it was laying off roughly 12% of the company’s workforce.
“The scenario required adjustments that go beyond the reduction of operating expenses, making it also necessary to dismiss some of our employees. The process we carried out was guided by transparency and respect, in order to honor the legacy of each employee who helped us get here,” 2TM explained.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss published a blog post that explained that 10% of Gemini’s staff would be laid off. “We are writing to update you on a difficult decision that will impact a number of you and the overall size of our team,” the Gemini co-founder wrote on June 2. “The crypto revolution is well underway and its impact will continue to be profound — But its trajectory has been anything but gradual or predictable,” the blog post adds.
Bitcoin.com News published a report by Coinbase that said it was slowing down the hiring process in the midst of the cryptocurrency market crash. Following that report, Coinbase then revealed it had to “rescind a number of accepted offers.” Furthermore, another company backed by Coinbase, Rain Financial Inc., said it had to lay off dozens of employees. Rain’s CEO and co-founder Joseph Dallago blamed the crypto bear market on the decision.
“As cryptocurrencies and global markets continue to slow down, this has, in turn, impacted businesses across the globe,” Dallago said in a statement to Bloomberg author Ben Bartenstein. “We have had to make tough decisions to be able to navigate through this period of uncertainty and we can confirm we have downsized our Rain workforce.”
Buenbit’s CEO detailed on May 23 that the company decided to reduce Buenbit’s staff. “After 2021’s exponential growth for the technology industry, we are going through a stage of global review,” Federico Ogue wrote. “Given this new context, we decided to reduce our staff and pause our expansion plan to focus exclusively on operations in the countries where we are present today and maintain a self-sustaining and efficient structure.”
While no one can predict how long this downturn will last layoffs indicate slowing growth, and that there is a bear-market cycle. Bitcoin.com published a list of crypto companies that laid off employees in the wake of the 2017 bull market. But, after the bear market ended in 2019, the crypto sector saw massive hiring booms.
While many firms are pausing hiring or laying off workers already, there’s still a number of positions available in the digital currency industry. Fidelity last week announced that it intends to increase its workforce during the cryptocurrency downturn.
Let us know your thoughts on the widespread layoffs within the crypto sector. Comment below and let us know how you feel about the topic.
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