At least 216 jobs were cut across three crypto corporations, including open-source software lab Protocol Labs, blockchain data provider Chainalysis, and US crypto exchange Bittrex, with cutbacks of 89, 83, and 44 individuals, respectively.
Lay Off Season Takes Over
The staff reductions were revealed by Juan Benet, CEO of Protocol Labs, an open-source R&D lab, in a blog post on February 3. He said that the company had to target its workforce “against the most impactful and business critical efforts.”
He said that the decision to eliminate “89 roles,” or about 21% of the company’s staff, was made to better position the business to “weather this extended winter.”
Given that the crypto business has faced “extremely challenging” times, Benet advised the company to “prepare for a longer downturn.”
CEO Richie Lai of Bittrex informed staff via email on February 1 that the firm had reduced headcount to “secure the long-term viability” of the business.
The email was disclosed on Twitter on February 2 and in it Lai complained that despite the leadership team “working aggressively” over the previous few months to cut costs and improve efficiencies, the attempts had not yielded the “results necessary.”
According to Lai, the company has had to reevaluate its approach and manage its “investments with the new economic environment.”
On February 2, it was discovered by employment statistics from Washington State that Bittrex had eliminated 83 workers.
Chainalysis’s director of communications, Maddie Kennedy, informed Forbes on Feb. 1 that 44 of the company’s 900 employees, or 4.8% of the workforce, were laid off.
As the bear market’s impact on customers’ demands and firm’s revenue is continuously increasing, multiple businesses have had to cut workers in order to survive. A total of 320 and 500 employees, respectively, were cut from the staff of the exchanges Huobi and Crypto.com.
