layoff - Pwim.Net

BitMEX Lays Off 25% Staff after Failing to Acquire German Bank

BitMEX Derivatives Exchange has reportedly cut off 25% of its staff following information shared with employees last week.

For a trading platform with about 300 employees, the number of staff layoffs is estimated to be as many as 75 staff members and without many details disclosed by the firm. BitMEX’s spokesperson said support mechanisms had been put in place to assist the affected individuals.

“BitMEX is making changes to our workforce to streamline for the next phase of our business. Our top priority is to make sure all employees who will be impacted have the support they require,” said a BitMEX spokesperson. “Each of them have been instrumental in the remarkable journey BitMEX has taken from its roots as a small startup to one of the top crypto exchanges in the world. The BitMEX platform will continue to operate as normal, and we will not be commenting further at this time.”

Such job cuts are quite unusual amongst trading platforms. However, it appears that BitMEX has been scaling back its operations since its plans to acquire one of Germany’s oldest banks, Bankhaus von der Heydt, was abandoned on what appears to be a disapproving node from the German banking regulator, BaFIN.

Anonymous sources close to the staff cut push confirmed that former Chief Executive Officer Arthur Hayes has a hand in the entire scaling back push, adding that “Arthur is taking a more active role in the company to effectively throw out what they have been planning and scale back everything.”

Since the active CEO, Alexander Höptner, stepped in, the company has been pushing avenues to grow its platform and brand awareness from predominantly a crypto derivatives trading platform to a more diversified fintech hub.

The move to acquire Bankhaus von der Heydt is one of the exchange’s attempts to change its outlook, and with the deal falling through, Höptner and the management team will need to make a more in-depth rediscovery of what to do to advance the platform’s image in the long run.

Robinhood Lays Off 9% Workforce, Shares drop

Robinhood is laying off 9% of its full-time workforce, CEO Vlad Tenev announced, as the shares of the company’s stock hit a new low.

Tenev, in a blog post, said that the lay-offs came after a headcount growth that “led to some duplicate roles and job functions, and more layers and complexity than are optimal.”

According to Reuters, the online trading platform had 3,400 employees, so around 300 people may be affected by the cut.

Since the beginning of 202, Robinhood has witnessed an increase in its employees from 700 to 3,800.

Regardless of the lay-off, Robinhood claims that its financial position is strong. Tenev announced that the company has over $6 billion in cash on its balance sheet.

Tenev said, “after carefully considering all these factors, we determined that making these reductions to Robinhood’s staff is the right decision to improve efficiency, increase our velocity, and ensure that we are responsive to the changing needs of our customers.”

Following the news of the lay-off, shares of the company’s stock closed at $10 on Tuesday, the lowest price since Robinhood went public in July 2021.

Robinhood’s layoff announcement comes days before the company is expected to report its Q1 2022 financial performance.

The company posted a $423 million net loss for its last quarter.

In one of its major recent crypto developments, Robinhood officially rolled out its long-awaited cryptocurrency wallet in early April, providing access to more than 2 million customers on the waiting list for the digital product.

The release of the wallet shows the company’s commitment to the crypto space, Robinhood said. Robinhood’s wallet will allow users to experience crypto interaction outside the company’s trading platform, such as buying non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Crypto.Com, BlockFi Announce Massive Layoffs as Economic Crisis Bites

Crypto exchange Crypto.com and lending platform BlockFi announced on Monday plans to cut over 400 jobs globally, as they come under pressure from difficult market conditions.

Crypto.com said that it would reduce its workforce by 5%, that is about 260 employees. CEO Kris Marszalek disclosed the announcement via Twitter social media: “Our approach is to stay focused on executing against our roadmap and optimizing for profitability as we do so … That means making difficult and necessary decisions to ensure continued and sustainable growth for the long term by making targeted reductions of approximately 260, or 5%, of our corporate workforce.”

Meanwhile, BlockFi also announced on Monday that it is laying off 20% of its workforce, which is around 170 people. Zac Prince, BlockFi CEO, said in a tweet Monday that the crypto lending firm is reducing its “headcount by roughly 20% and the reduction impacts every team at the company. This decision was driven by market conditions that have had a negative impact on our growth rate and a rigorous review of our strategic priorities.”

Recession Fears

Crypto.com and BlockFi have followed a series of various crypto firms faced with massive layoffs. Late last month, Bitso, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in Latin America, laid off 80 employees due to the recent downturn in the crypto market. Last month, Buenbit, an Argentina-based cryptocurrency exchange, also cut its workforce by 45%.

Earlier this month, Coinbase announced a freeze of its hiring for the foreseeable future and withdrew a number of accepted offers in order to deal with current macroeconomic conditions. Early this month, Bahrain-based crypto exchange Rain Financial Inc and Latin America’s largest crypto exchange 2TM also laid off over a dozen employees as digital asset markets remain red.

Crypto market is experiencing bad days as value of the digital assets plunged below $1 trillion on Monday, triggered by the announcement by Crypto lender Celsius Network that it paused all withdrawals and transfers between accounts, citing “extreme market conditions.”

The latest crypto crash marked the first time since January 2021 when the Bitcoin price fell to a low of $23,750 and the cryptocurrency market has reached as low as $926 billion, according to data site CoinMarketCap. In November 2021, the global crypto market peaked at $2.9 trillion but has been seeing a steady decline this year.

In the past two months, investors have dumped riskier assets amid high inflation and fears that interest rate raises by central banks will hamper growth. Extreme market conditions and central banks’ policy updates are exacerbating the consequences for digital assets.

Celsius Network Slashes 25% of its Workforce amid Potential Insolvency

Celsius Network’s woes continue to deepen because the crypto lending company has reduced its workforce by 150 employees, including those based in Israel, according to media outlet CTech.

The American-Israeli company let go a quarter of its workforce just a few weeks after it halted withdrawals, citing extreme market conditions, which resulted in rumours of insolvency.

Nevertheless, Celsius has hired restructuring lawyers and consultants to solve its financial woes. The firm noted:

“We are focused and working as quickly as we can to stabilize liquidity and operations, in order to be positioned to share more information with the community. We are operating with the entire community and all clients in mind as we work through these challenging times.”

Celsius raised $750 million in funding in late 2021, pushing its valuation to $3 billion.

Founded in 2017, the firm gave interest-bearing products to cryptocurrency owners who deposited their funds, with returns going as high as 18.6% annually. In turn, the firm would lend out cryptocurrencies to gain profits.

Did Celsius bite off more than it could chew?

A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report disclosed that Celsius took more risk than it could handle because it had a total asset base of $19 billion. In contrast, its equity contribution was pegged at just $1 billion.

As a result, the WSJ made the analogy that the company’s Asset-to-Equity ratio was more than double the average for all the North American banks in the S&P 1500 Composite index, which is close to 9:1.

These factors might have contributed to crypto exchange FTX shelving its acquisition of the company. FTX recently revealed that it turned down bailing out the embattled crypto lending platform because its situation was difficult to solve.

Moreover, the crypto exchange poked a “$2 billion hole” in Celsius’ balance sheet.

Bullish.com to Layoff Staff amid Market Downturn

Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish.com has joined other crypto companies in making layoffs to tackle the massive market downturn.

According to The Block, a source said that less than 30 Bullish staff members have been laid off. Bullish has employed around 390 people.

However, a company spokesperson confirmed that “Bullish continues to actively hire for products, engineering and other strategic roles as we continue to evolve our business strategy.”

Bullish was launched last year as a subsidiary of Block.one – the software company behind the EOSIO blockchain protocol. Block.one and other investors provided an initial $10 billion in funding.

The company is based in the Cayman Islands and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. The crypto firm has hired employees across the world, with a large presence in Hong Kong.

Bullish’s latest move just follows other crypto firms in cutting jobs due to a downturn in the market. Recently, Coinbase, Gemini, BitMEX, OSL and Abra have all cut down their workforces.

The Block reported that crypto trading and lending platform Abra has cut down a dozen jobs last week. Abra CEO Bill Barhydt confirmed the layoffs to The Block, saying that the firm has cut 12 jobs “purely as a cost-saving measure,” which translates to around 5% of the total workforce.

According to a report from Blockchain.News, Bybit trading platform revealed plans in June to lay off staff in a bid to reposition their businesses amid the ongoing crypto market slump.

The latest layoff of the Bybit was unveiled through an internal letter shared with employees by the platform’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben Zhou.

In the letter, Zhou emphasized the need to downsize, considering some of the staff are not needed in the wake of the frightening economic realities. Zhou said the company’s workforce grew from a few hundred in early 2020 to more than 300% at this time.

While Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that approximately 18% of all of Coinbase Global Inc’s workforce will be laid off as the cryptocurrency trading platform strategizes to navigate the now evident crypto winter.

While Armstrong cited over-hiring in the wake of the Nasdaq-listed American cryptocurrency trading platform’s expansion in early 2021 as one of the reasons for the explosive growth, it noted that the reality of the economic outlook is not encouraging, and the business has to survive in case the recession is drawn out for much longer. Armstrong said that laying off the staff is to cut costs and drive increased efficiency across the board.

Blockchain.News also reported that in June, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini shed off as many as 10% of its entire workers.

OpenSea to Lay off 20% of Employees

OpenSea has become the new victim of the ongoing crypto winter as it has decided to slash its workforce.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has announced that it will cut a fifth or 20% of its staff.

OpenSea, one of the largest marketplaces for NFTs, suggested that about 57 people will be laid off as it said it now has 230 employees.

While, according to TechCrunch, the company’s LinkedIn page indicates it has 769 employees, which would mean roughly 150 people lost their jobs.

Chief Executive Devin Finzer said in an internal memo to employees, also shared on Twitter, that the firm would provide severance and healthcare coverage into 2023 to those laid off. Finzer added that accelerated equity vesting will also be provided.

“The changes we’re making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (5 years at the current volume) and give us high confidence that we only have to go through this process once,” Finzer said.

The layoffs are a contradiction to Finzer’s claims in January after raising $300 million in venture capital funding when he said that the funds would be used to hire 90 new employees and establish a fund for creators.

As the crash in cryptocurrency prices has continued to wreak havoc on digital-asset firms, the market capitalization of digital currencies is now below $1 trillion – a big drop from nearly $3 trillion in late 2021, data from CoinMarketCap showed.

The layoff has come at a time when the NFT marketplace has been experiencing a declining user base. The decline initially started following a June incident when a former employee was charged with fraud and money laundering by the Justice Department. The prosecutors said that incident was the first case of insider trading of digital tokens, the WSJ reported.

Other crypto firms that have laid off employees due to the market downturn include U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc., which reduced staff by 18% in mid-June, and the firm’s shares fell to nearly 79% throughout this year.

According to a report from Blockchain.News, crypto exchange Crypto.com and lending platform BlockFi also announced in early June plans to cut over 400 jobs globally due to the pressure from difficult market conditions.

Crypto.com had said it would reduce its workforce by 5%, which is about 260 employees, while BlockFi announced a 20% layoff of its workforce, which is around 170 people.

Data from The Block showed that the NFT market peaked in January with $16.6 billion in monthly volume, which was a robust growth from its more than $350 million in July 2021. However, it slumped down to about $1 billion in June due to a decrease in activity in the digital asset sector.

Gemini Executes Second Round of Layoffs: TechCrunch

Crypto exchange Gemini has made the second round of layoffs seven weeks after the crypto exchange cut about 10% of its workforce, citing “turbulent market conditions.”

A source in connection with TechCrunch told the publication that the layoffs were being executed due to “extreme cost-cutting.” The publication also added that there might be more layoffs in the coming future.

TechCrunch reported that although employees were not aware of the extent of the layoffs, the same source noted in Gemini’s companywide Slack channel that there was a reduction of 7% or 68 members.

Previously, a document which was shared around Gemini’s office and an anonymous professional network, Blind, on July 14 highlighted a plan that would trim the workforce to around 800 – or a 15% decrease from the 950 employees at the time – TechCrunch reported citing the source.

In June, the crypto exchange executed its first layoff since its inception in 2014, with 10% of its workforce being slashed as the founders cited a “crypto winter”.

Layoffs in the crypto industry are turning into a trend as prior to Gemini, popular non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea cut its employee headcount by about 20% last week. OpenSea, one of the largest marketplaces for NFTs, suggested that about 57 people will be laid off as it said it now has 230 employees.

While other top crypto firms such as Crypto.com, BlockFi and Coinbase are other victims of the crypto winter and have had to reduce the scale of staff recently.

Crypto.com had said it would reduce its workforce by 5%, which is about 260 employees, while BlockFi announced a 20% layoff of its workforce, which is around 170 people.

Meanwhile, U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reduced staff by 18% in mid-June, and the firm’s shares fell to nearly 79% throughout this year.

Blockchain.com Slashes 25% Workforce amid Crypto Meltdown

Massive layoffs continue engulfing the crypto market. Blockchain.com took the latest actions by reducing its workforce by 25%.

Citing harsh bearish conditions, the crypto exchange laid off approximately 150 people and shut down its offices based in Argentina.

Blockchain.com has been on a rapid expansion drive in the last 16 months as a pioneer firm in the cryptocurrency industry, with its staff jumping from 150 to 600. Per the announcement:

“Some 44% of the impacted employees are in Argentina, 26% in the U.S., 16% in the U.K., and the remaining from the rest of the world.”

The recent collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) dented the exchange’s financial position after losing $270 million.

Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith mentioned in a letter to shareholders, “Three Arrows is rapidly becoming insolvent, and the default impact is approximately $270 million worth of cryptocurrency and U.S. dollar loans from Blockchain.com.”

The exchange has also stopped all mergers and acquisitions (M&A), reduced institutional lending, and slowed its establishment in the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.

The crypto meltdown being experienced has seen Bitcoin (BTC) shed more than 65% of its value from the all-time high (ATH) price of $69,000 recorded in November last year.

As a result, the market downturn has triggered significant layoffs in the crypto space. For instance, crypto exchange Crypto.com and lending platform BlockFi recently announced plans to cut over 400 jobs globally.

Furthermore, crypto exchange Gemini made the second round of layoffs, citing “turbulent market conditions.” Therefore, it seems the layoffs have mostly affected cryptocurrency exchanges.

Crypto Broker Genesis Cuts 20% Workforce, CEO Michael Moro Stepping Down

Genesis, a major institutional digital asset market and a full-service digital currency prime brokerage based in New York, on Wednesday announced several leadership changes amid the company’s efforts to boost the next phase of its growth.

Genesis disclosed that its CEO Michael Moro is stepping down, and the firm is slashing 20% of its 260-person workforce. The cut of 20% equates to the loss of around 52 jobs.

The downsizing exercise comes a few months after Genesis reported huge losses tied to the collapse of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) in June.

Derar Islim, the Chief Operating Officer at Genesis, will take over as interim CEO while the firm searches for a permanent replacement.

The company said that Moro, who joined Genesis in 2015 and took over as CEO the following year, will stay on during the leadership transition.

Besides that, Genesis said it recently hired new executives as chief risk officer, chief compliance officer, and chief technology officer to strengthen its governance further and position the company for the future.

Genesis is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, a global enterprise that builds, purchases, and invests in blockchain firms worldwide.

Genesis started its crypto trading desk and lending business in 2013, when Bitcoin was trading just around $80. The New York-based firm is among the largest trading platforms in the crypto market.

Genesis facilitated significantly superior transactions last year when crypto markets were booming. The company’s loan originations soared more than sevenfold to $131 billion, and the firm increased its workforce by 22% to 170 employees. By mid this year, the company’s headcount rose to 260.

The rapid crash in the crypto market this year wiped out companies whose businesses were tied directly to the values of crypto assets. Firms, including Hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital, and Celsius Networks, among others, filed for bankruptcy after facing financial challenges triggered by volatile market conditions.

Although Genesis weathered the storm better than other participants in the market, the company suffered massive losses due to its exposure to 3AC.

In July, Genesis filed a $1.2 billion claim against the now insolvent Three Arrows Capital because of breached loans.

One-third of Staff Laid Off in Digital Investment Group NYDIG: WSJ

New York-based digital investment group NYDIG laid off nearly a third of its workforce, about 110 people in total, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources with the matter on Thursday.

The layoffs have been conducted for about “a few weeks,” according to three people familiar with the matter, with company executives issuing formal notices of layoffs on September 22.

Bitcoin trading and banking firm NYDIG said the layoffs were part of a quest to cut spending and narrow its focus to more promising businesses.

NYDIG is a full-service, vertically integrated Bitcoin-only financial services company.

On October 3, NYDIG announced that CEO Robert Gutman and President Zhao Yan had stepped down, and NYDIG executives Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad took over as CEO and President, respectively.

Retiring Robert Gutman and Zhao Yan will return to Stone Ridge Holdings Group, the parent company of NYDIG.

Stone Ridge was founded in 2012 by current CEO Ross Stevens. In 2017, the founder launched the Bitcoin-driven New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), where he serves as executive chairman.

“The firm’s balance sheet is the strongest it’s ever been, and now we’re investing aggressively into a capital-starved market,” said Stevens.

On September 13, Stone Ridge Asset Management, a global asset management firm based in New York, announced plans to liquidate and dissolve its Stone Ridge Bitcoin Strategy Fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

As of October 3, New York-based digital investment group NYDIG said it had raised $720 million for its institutional bitcoin fund, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.