Bitwise Slashes 14% of Staff Amid Crypto Prices Downturn

Bitwise has reportedly cut 14% of its staff amid an ongoing downturn in cryptocurrency prices.

The San Francisco digital assets company reduced its workforce from around 180 to roughly 155, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Aug. 12), citing an email from Bitwise.

Even with these layoffs, Bitwise’s staffing levels are at their highest point to date, CEO Hunter Horsley told Bloomberg, adding that the company expects growth to continue as crypto becomes more embedded into the world economy.

Bitwise offers crypto products such as exchange-traded funds, including a $2.3 billion bitcoin ETF, a lineup of private funds, and separately managed accounts, the report added. The company oversees upwards of 70 products and commands about $9 billion in assets.

As Bloomberg notes, the cryptocurrency sector is mired in a nearly year-long downturn. Bitcoin, the most popular form of crypto, is down by nearly half to about $64,000 after a record high in October.

Crypto companies like Coinbase and FalconX have also cut staff, while BitMEX and Bitmart both announced they were shutting down last month. The Bloomberg report added that the sector is facing another obstacle: retail investors moving their money from crypto into sports betting sites and artificial intelligence (AI) companies.

A recent report from CoinDesk said that upwards of 100 crypto projects have either shuttered, filed for bankruptcy or gone dark for good this year, amid the market downturn and a series of cyberattacks on digital asset companies.

In other digital asset news, recent research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Paymentology finds that consumers increasingly want cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to function in similar ways to familiar forms of money.

“Demand is growing for everyday purchases, subscriptions and larger transactions,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this week. “Yet limited merchant acceptance, transaction costs and uneven user experiences still separate ownership from routine use.”

The report, “From Asset to Everyday Money: Making Digital Currencies Spendable,” shows an encouraging way forward: connecting digital assets to the banking apps, cards and payment networks people already understand.

The research also found demand surpassing usage, with 42% of stablecoin holders saying they want to use digital assets for major purposes, compared to 28% who already do so.

“The 14-point gap suggests that the main constraint is no longer consumer curiosity,” the report added. “People need more places to pay and a simpler route from the asset in a wallet to a completed transaction.”