Despite Bitcoin’s rise in January, the crypto industry witnessed about 3,000 staff layoffs with at least 14 firms including Coinbase, Gemini, DCG, and ConsenSys announcing staff reductions in the month alone.
In the first month of 2023, cryptocurrency businesses tightened their belts, laying off at least 2,900 employees across 14 different businesses.
The crypto infrastructure provider Prime Trust is the most recent company to purportedly start laying off staff; it has reportedly decreased its personnel base by a third.
Given that Prime employed 312 workers as of the time of writing, the decrease would result in the loss of around 100 people.
Other notable layoffs over the last few days include the firing of 30 employees from the cryptocurrency platform Matrixport, according to a Jan. 27 Bloomberg story, and the firing of about 100 employees from the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, according to a Jan. 23 report.
The crypto exchange Coinbase, which decreased its employment by almost 950 workers on Jan. 10, carried out the biggest personnel layoff of the month.
The cutbacks at its rival exchanges Crypto.com, Luno, and Huobi were followed by cuts to around 500, 330, and 320 personnel, respectively.
As the company navigates a financial crisis, the troubled crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its subsidiaries saw major layoffs, firing 485 employees in January alone.
The DCG-owned Luno saw the greatest number of layoffs, while DCG itself fired 66 workers, its subsidiary lending platform Genesis dropped 63 positions, and its asset management company HQ Digital closed its doors, laying off 26 people.
The list was completed by the sackings of 200 employees from cryptocurrency bank Silvergate, 110 workers from the Blockchain.com exchange, and 96 employees from MetaMask’s parent firm, ConsenSys.
Meanwhile, 20 employees were let go from SuperRare, a nonfungible token (NFT) exchange.
These layoffs occurred despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) stellar performance in the month, which saw it approach over $25,000 due to growing institutional demand.
However, the widespread layoffs in the cryptocurrency business were not unique. Just four businesses—Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce—fired over 48,000 employees in January alone.
While some would predict more doom in the future, cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital asserts that now is the best time to launch a blockchain business since downturn markets provide “less noise and distraction from development.”
