Crypto Layoffs Decelerate, with Layoffs Falling to 570 in February

https://bitcoinworld.co.in/crypto-layoffs-decelerate-with-layoffs-falling-to-570-in-february/

The job cuts were spread across at least 12 companies over the course of the 28-day period, according to data compiled by Cointelegraph based on publicly reported layoffs, but they were noticeably absent from the triple-digit crypto exchange layoffs that occurred in January, including those at Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Huobi.

Instead, the majority of employee reductions were in the double digits, having an effect on, among others, blockchain analytics companies, blockchain and software development companies, and digital asset platforms.

Elliptic and Messari, two crypto analytics companies, have recently reduced their employees by 10% and 15%, respectively. Ryan Selkis, the creator of Messari, said in a tweet on February 23 that internal team reorganization and “market challenges” were to blame for the personnel reductions.

A spokeswoman for Elliptic said to DLNews on February 24 that the decision to fire 20 staff was made in an effort to reduce operational costs.

That comes after reports that another blockchain analytics business, Chainalysis, had fired 44 of its 900 workers, or 4.8% of its staff, “mainly in sales,” earlier this month.

The increase in layoffs is a macro phenomenon, not only in Web3, but in IT in general, according to Australia-based crypto recruiter Neil Dundon, who spoke to Cointelegraph.

For your information, 129 tech businesses laid off 24,572 workers in total in February, compared to 268 IT companies’ combined 84,414 layoffs in January.

“Unless Bitcoin decouples from the stock market, Web3 will always be impacted more severely. The increase may also be attributed to worries about stricter controls in Web3. Yet cryptocurrency is robust as always.

The nonfungible token business Dapper Labs and Ethereum scaling platform Polygon Labs both let go roughly 20% of their personnel as a consequence of internal reorganization, which was at the upper end of layoffs in the month.

In a tweet on February 21, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal revealed the decision was made as a consequence of consolidating all internal teams under Polygon Labs, which resulted in the loss of 100 employees.

After a first round of layoffs in November, Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, revealed another round on February 23. He noted that the reorganization was done “to increase our focus and efficiency.”

Another Ethereum layer-2 blockchain protocol developer, Immutable, an Australian company, is said to have reduced workforce by 11% in the last month.

The Block, the NFT market Magic Eden, the institutional crypto custodian Fireblocks, the software company Protocol Labs, and other businesses have announced job cutbacks.

While it is unknown how many workers from its crypto section were let go as a consequence, payments processor Affirm revealed during the month that it was ending its cryptocurrency program in conjunction with a 19% personnel reduction.

The creator of blockchain recruiting company Proof of Search, Kevin Gibson, said that the rate of layoffs seemed to have decreased since January.

Jan was significant because it came after boards and venture capitalists began anticipating the worst and looked forward to 2022 outcomes, he added. “This month, there have been fewer laid-off prospects,”

Further layoffs “would be cutting into muscle at a time when firms are still producing amazing products and the present teams are highly stressed,”

Gibson does caution that ongoing news coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX crash “is having an influence on the public opinion of the industry and mainstream adoption,” adding that the US securities regulator “may yet bring about additional misery.”