In Brief
- The crypto brokerage Blockchain.com slashes headcount by 28%.
- The company adapts strict cost-cutting to return to profitability in 2023.
- The broader crypto industry is experiencing layoffs, but Binance plans to expand its team by 15% to 30%.
Blockchain.com lets go of 28% of its staff to achieve profitability in 2023. It slashed 25% of its workforce in July 2022, impacted by the collapse of 3AC.
The year has changed, but the impact of the crypto winter remains the same. Blockchain.com is the latest crypto firm to let go of its staff for cost-cutting measures. The firm accelerated its staff by 5X in 2021, but now it believes it is critical to rightsize its workforce.
Blockchain.com Lays Off 28% of Staff
A source close to the situation informed BeInCrypto that Blockchain.com announced letting go of 28% of its full-time employees on Thursday. The firm also laid off up to 100 contract employees on Tuesday, making up around 80% of the total contractors.
The collapse of Three Arrow Capital heavily impacted Blockchain.com. Previously, it slashed over 150 employees in July, which made up a quarter of the total workforce.
The CEO of Blockchain.com – Peter Smith, explains, “Returning to profitability is our single best strategy in this environment, and it is necessary to reduce our costs to achieve this in 2023.”
Binance Plans to Expand the Team While the Industry Experiences Massive Layoffs
Not just Blockchain.com, but the crypto exchange Coinbase announced to slash headcounts by 950 employees on Tuesday. It has laid off over 2000 employees since June 2022.
The Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX reportedly sacked 80-100 employees across marketing, branding, and activation teams for restructuring.
But as the competitors are laying off their employees, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, plans to expand the team. At the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Zhao declared that they want to increase the number of staff by 15% to 30% in 2023.
However, Steve Hanke, the Professor of Applied Economics, predicts that there will be more cuts for the broader industry.
Disclaimer
BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.