Luno Slashes 35% of its Workforce as DCG Battles Challenges

In Brief

• Crypto exchange, Luno will layoff approximately 336 employees.
• It is available in 43 countries and has over nine million customers.
• The crypto exchanges are letting go of employees as a part of their cost-cutting measures.

The layoffs by crypto exchanges continues, with employees of Luno being the latest victim. The company has announced it will let go of approximately 336 employees.

Unfortunately, back-to-back layoffs in the tech sector have become the new norm in 2023. Along with the employees of big tech companies like Google and Amazon, many crypto exchanges are also impacted by the layoffs.

The Digital Currency Group-owned Luno Exchange is laying off 35% of its employees due to turbulence in the tech industry.

Luno Parent DCG Faces Challenges
Luno is available in 43 countries and has over nine million customers, according to its LinkedIn page. It’s South African arm also helped the Advertising Regulatory Board of South Africa prepare specific crypto advertisement rules.

The crypto exchange employs 962 people. Hence, a 35% layoff will impact roughly 336 employees.

The CEO Marcus Swanepoel told CNBC, “2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market. Luno unfortunately hasn’t been immune to this turbulence, which has affected our overall growth and revenue numbers.”

The parent company of Luno – Digital Currency Group (DCG) is facing massive challenges as its lending arm Genesis filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 20. DCG is also considering selling its crypto outlet – CoinDesk.

Massive Crypto Exchanges Layoff
Crypto exchanges are on a layoff spree in 2023. Justin Sun’s Huobi exchange announced laying off 20% of its staff to maintain a lean team. While Blockchain.com slashed 28% of its staff to achieve profitability in 2023.

Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges after Binance, also announced it would let go of 950 employees. Most exchanges aggressively hired in 2020 and 2021 and are now in a strict cost-cutting mode.

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.