Crypto.com Tops Off Brutal Week of Crypto Layoffs

Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%.

As the company’s co-founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek, stated in a blog post on Friday (Jan. 13), “ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events” were behind the decision, which he said was “difficult but necessary … in order to position the company for long-term success.”

The news comes at the end of a brutal week of layoffs for the crypto industry after blockchain.com revealed that it had laid off 28% of its staff on Thursday and Coinbase announced a 20% reduction in its headcount on Tuesday.

With three well-known cryptocurrency exchanges announcing layoffs in a week, 2023 appears to be continuing a trend that defined the crypto industry last year.

Even prior to the collapse of FTX in November, crypto.com had already let go of 30%-40% of its employees in the wake of a major market downturn that affected the entire industry and forced many exchanges to cut back on their expenditures.

Likewise, following a $270 million loss due to the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital in July, blockchain.com had already laid off around 150 employees.

As Marszalek said on Friday, “the reductions we made last July positioned us to weather the macroeconomic downturn, but it did not account for the recent collapse of FTX, which significantly damaged trust in the industry.”

While many big-name crypto firms are struggling to keep afloat, and it seems likely that there will yet be further casualties of the FTX collapse, a handful of young contenders are looking to tap into demand for more secure, trustworthy ways to buy and trade in crypto.

As PYMNTS reported recently, at least two exchanges launched in the EU this year are positioning themselves as a safer alternative to established players by talking up their low-risk custody solutions intended to protect users’ assets even if the platforms themselves go bust.