It was a tough month for crypto employees, with at least 14 firms announcing staff reductions, including Coinbase, Gemini, Digital Currency Group, ConsenSys, and Blockchain.com
Crypto companies closed their wallets in the first month of 2023, with at least 2,900 crypto users released from 14 crypto companies in January.
The latest company to lay off employees is crypto infrastructure provider Prime Trust, which has reportedly laid off a third of its workforce. The reduction will amount to a reduction of about 100 employees, as Prime has 312 employees on LinkedIn at the time of writing.
Other recent cuts in the past few days include the layoff of 30 employees at crypto platform Matrixport, as of Jan. 27 Bloomberg report, while the first January 23 news from Information showed that around 100 jobs were fired at the crypto exchange Gemini. The largest number of employees of the month started with the crypto exchange Coinbase, which reduced its work by 950 employees on January 10. Its peer exchange Crypto.com, Luno, and Huobi followed with a reduction of around 500, 330, and 320 employees respectively.
Struggling crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its subsidiaries have also seen huge pay cuts with 485 workers laid off in January alone as the company faces financial difficulties. DCG-owned Luno saw several redundancies, with DCG itself laying off 66 employees, its lending subsidiary Genesis shedding 63 jobs, and its asset management company HQ Digital closing, affecting 26 employees.
Rounding out the list, 200 employees were fired from crypto bank Silvergate, 110 employees were cut from the Blockchain.com exchange, and 96 employees were fired from MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys. So far, 20 users have been fired from the SuperRare non-fungible token (NFT) market.
These staff cuts came despite the strong performance of Bitcoin (BTC) during the month, targeting near $25,000 as industry demand continued to rise. However, the huge rewards of the crypto industry are not isolated. About 48,000 people in January alone were laid off in just four companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce. While some may believe that there is something dark to come, crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital believes that there has never been a better time to start a blockchain business, saying that the bear market offers “a little bit of structural noise and distraction”.
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