By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
As the market crisis continues, exchanges seem to be singing the same song – “Cut jobs or fail”.
As the market crisis continues, BlockFi has announced it will be cutting some jobs. The firm joins other exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com and Latam Exchange that announced job cuts.
In announcing the layoff, BlockFi cited that its decision was affected by the setbacks in macroeconomic conditions globally. The result has been a loss of investor confidence in risky assets like Bitcoin. From a peak of $3 trillion, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropped to $980.65 Billion. Bitcoin itself is trading at $22, 458 at the time of writing.
According to a BlockFi blog post, it will lay off about 20% of its workforce, amounting to approximately 170 people. The job cut will affect all teams. The firm noted that the market had negatively impacted its growth rate, forcing a review of priorities. BlockFi may be even worse hit than some other exchanges, given its case with the SEC earlier. Earlier in the year, the firm settled for a $100 million fine after failing to register its high-yield interest accounts.
BlockFi CEO, Zac Prince, also confirmed the information in a Twitter thread. However, he assured clients that the firm’s products and services will remain unaffected. The blog post also assured that the firm is doing everything to help affected employees absorb the impact.
Market Crisis Dictates New Song
As the market crisis continues, exchanges seem to be singing the same song – “Cut jobs or fail.” Coinbase was the first to announce a job cut, rescinding its job offers to many. It also created a directory to help settle the employees within the industry.
Likewise, over the weekend, Gemini announced it was cutting about 10% of its workforce. Rain Financial, a Bahrain-based crypto exchange, also announced it would cut dozens of jobs. In much the same way, Crypto.com announced it was cutting 5% of its workforce. That amounts to about 260 employees.
According to the CEO of Crypto.com, Marszalek, it was a difficult but necessary decision to sustain continued growth. He said, “Our approach is to stay focused on executing against our roadmap and optimizing for profitability as we do so.”
With the market crisis not looking to let off, one can expect more layoffs as crypto firms try to balance.