Despite the recent market rally, these crypto companies have laid off more employees

The prolonged bear market has reduced interest in cryptocurrencies and hampered operations for many industry players. Some leading exchanges, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Bybit, and Kraken, have laid off some of their workforce to weather the tough times.

The trend seems similar at the start of the year despite the recent market revival, with Gemini, Blockchain.com, Coinbase and many others announcing a new wave of layoffs.

The layoff spree continues

Thousands of people have lost their jobs due to unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, while the FTX crash and its subsequent domino effect appears to have triggered additional layoffs. Here is a list of crypto firms that reduced the size of their teams between early November and today.

Argentinian Lemon Cash Exchange cut about 38% of its staff, which equates to about 100 people. CEO Cavazzoli assured that the changes were unrelated to the collapse of FTX, admitting that the company had “small” exposure to Alameda Research.

The Mexican crypto platform Bitso fired approximately 25% of its workforce at the end of November. This was the second round of layoffs for the entity which had previously laid off 80 people.

The San Francisco-based Kraken also added its name to the list, reduce its workforce by a third.

“Unfortunately, the negative influences in financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options to align costs with demand,” he said.

per bit joined the bandwagon in early December, reducing its workforce by 30%, while the Australian stock exchange Swyftx followed suit with a layoff of almost 50%.

Gate.io – a trading platform based in the Cayman Islands, and Houbi did not have the best start to the year, discarding almost 50% and 20% respectively.

One of the largest crypto exchanges – Coinbase – laid off staff for the second time on January 10, while Blockchain.com (28%) and Crypto.com (20%) did so in the following days.

Other trading platforms that have recently downsized their teams are CoinDCXAmber Group, Gemini (10%) and Luna (35%).

Other industry players

The range does not only include digital asset exchanges, but also companies that offer different types of services. One such example is the cryptocurrency-focused investment company – Paradigm. He reduced salaries instead of firing people.

The multi-channel network supporting Web3 applications – Octopus Network – fired 40% of its team members by the end of 2022. The NFT Market – SuperRare – slashed 30% in early 2023, while blockchain software technology company – ConsenSys – took the “extremely difficult decision” to lay off 96 of its employees.

Silvergate Capital – a crypto-focused bank headquartered in California – size 40% (about 200 people) and abandoned several projects due to unsatisfactory revenues in previous quarters.

Digital Currency Group – a venture capital firm led by Barry Silbert – recently laid off 30% and firm its wealth management division. The move came shortly after its subsidiary Genesis announced a downsizing. Additionally, the platform also has deposit for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A few layoffs until the collapse of FTX

The first wave of layoffs began early in the second quarter of last year (coinciding with the Terra fallout and subsequent market decline). BitMEX fired 25% then and 30% months later.

The Argentinian platform Buenbit slashed 45% in May in an attempt to reshape its business strategy during the global currency crisis.

June also saw many companies reduce their teams, with Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini, Banxavault, 2TMand BitOasis being a few examples.

OpenSeaCoinFLEX, Core Scientific, WazirX, NYDIG, Dapper Laboratoriesand other laid-off employees until the FTX crash.

Binance is hiring

Unlike countless job cuts, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – Binance – has plans for expansion. CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) insured in June last year that the company has a “healthy war chest”, arguing that the bear market is a great time to hire more staff.

It has doubled this month, developer Binance’s intentions to increase its team by up to 30%. The China-Canada executive said the squad had grown to 8,000 in 2022 (up from around 3,000 at the start of the year).