By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
ConsenSys announces plans to shed off at least 50% of their workforce. The bear markets are to blame for this move as the company aims to refocus their operational and management strategies.
Ethereum venture studio ConsenSys announced that they are cutting off funding for several of its start-ups. According to reliable sources, the company is spinning off several of its “spokes” in company parlance. On Thursday, The Verge published that around 50% of ConsenSys’ 1,200-person workforce could lose their jobs due to this move.
Nobody is yet to confirm that figure but many other sources have highlighted that additional staff cuts are imminent. Thursday’s development follows another retrenchment announcement of around 150 workers. As we noted earlier, the laying off of 13% of the company’s staff came as part of ConsenSys ‘refocusing’ strategy.
Sources have revealed that the company is presenting some of its spokes with an alternative to discontinue work. Those who choose to discontinue can seek investment outside or take up a severance package. The company is silent on the method they will use to jettison the spokes.
The report follows a ConsenSys letter to staff announcing the company’s plans to toughen and streamline its business model. They said that the streamlining is necessary in an increasingly “crowded” competitive blockchain space.
The Layoffs
Joseph Lubin, the company CEO did not shy away from commenting on the matter. He said:
“We must retain, and in some cases regain, the lean and gritty startup mindset that made us who we are.”
While the company may reassign some of the staff from the closed down projects, Lubin allegedly never ruled out layoffs. The company announced that it is discussing the situation with all projects. They aim to determine the path forward whether internally as a segment of ConsenSys 2.0, or as an external brand.
Another source explained the reason for the major shakeup. It said:
“The world has not collapsed as [Lubin] planned, and so he needs to pivot his company because it was orchestrated for a vision only where Ethereum would be $10, 000.”
The Second Layoff in Two Months
It was just last month when ConsenSys released 13% of its workers. This move was a strategy to let the company remain competitive. The restructuring then was confirmed by Joe Lubin, the Founder. At the beginning of December, we reported that the company eliminated some of its underperforming projects due to the bearish crypto markets.
After Thursday’s announcement, an unnamed source from within the company spoke of the recent round of layoffs. They said:
“It was so shady. They were firing people they had hired two weeks beforehand. They were firing people who were pregnant and whose wives were pregnant”
If the reports are true, many more individuals will depart from the biggest conglomerate of Ethereum start-ups. This trend of layoffs results from the current bear markets that haunted cryptocurrencies for the entire 2018.
Meanwhile,Consensys is not the only project which chooses to axe part of the team amid bearish market conditions, Steemit let go 70% of its employees while Ethereum-based chat application Status plans to cut its staff by 25%.