NYDIG Cuts 33% of Workforce in Move to Refocus

Cryptocurrency trading broker NYDIG reportedly slashed its workforce by about 33% days before the company replaced two executives last month, including its CEO, and had declared its balance sheet was strong.

Roughly 110 employees were informed of the layoffs by NYDIG executives on Sept. 22, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (Oct. 14), citing unnamed sources with insider information. Workers cut from the company were told the decision was an effort to lower overhead and refocus its business direction, the sources told the WSJ.

See also: NYDIG Promotes Tejas Shah to CEO, Nate Conrad to President

The company announced on Oct. 3 that CEO and co-founder Robert Gutmann and President Yan Zhao were exiting the startup to focus on NYDIG’s parent Stone Ridge Holdings Group, PYMNTS reported.

Tejas Shah was promoted to CEO from his role as head of institutional finance and Nate Conrad, former global head of payments, was named NYDIG President.

At the time, the bitcoin trading broker said the company was tracking for record revenue, with sales up 130% in the first half of 2022.

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

Read more: Crypto.com Has Cut 30%-40% of Staff

Headquartered in midtown Manhattan and founded in 2017 as New York Digital Investment Group, NYDIG is a division of Stone Ridge Holdings, founded in 2012, and operates a full-stack bitcoin platform to provide trading, brokerage, custody and asset management services to institutional investors.

The company was last valued at more than $7 billion following a $1 billion funding round in December 2021, the WSJ reported.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. acquired a $5 million minority equity stake in NYDIG two years ago as part of a $100 million bitcoin purchase.