Major crypto firms reportedly cut up to 10% of staff amid bear market

Published at: June 2, 2022

Gemini, a cryptocurrency trading platform founded by brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is the latest industry firm to lay off a significant part of its staff due to unfavorable market conditions.

Winklevoss’ crypto business Gemini Trust reportedly cut 10% of its employees amid the ongoing bear crypto market, the founders wrote in a notice to employees on June 2, as Bloomberg reported.

As part of its first major headcount cut, Gemini will refocus on products that are “critical” to the firm’s mission, the brothers said, adding that “turbulent market conditions” are “likely to persist for some time.” The notice reportedly reads:

“This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis — what our industry refers to as "crypto winter. [...] This has all been further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil. We are not alone.”

The new report comes after a number of major industry companies fired some employees or put new hires on hold. In late May, the major Latin American crypto exchange Bitso laid off 80 employees, citing internal issues. "We found that the state of our organization was not representing our business and go-to-market strategy to the best of Bitso’s ability, which led to our internal restructuring," a spokesperson for Bitso told Cointelegraph.

Previously, the Coinbase exchange officially announced in mid-May that it would slow down hiring and reassess its headcount in order to ensure it continues operating as planned. The major crypto-friendly trading platform Robinhood also fired 9% of its workforce in April. The layoffs came amid Robinhood’s HOOD stock touching all-time lows as part of a longer-term bear market on crypto markets.

The latest crypto industry layoffs are by no means new to the industry as major crypto markets like Bitcoin (BTC) have been historically moving in cycles, with major bear markets preceding bigger gains. Amid a massive bear market of crypto in 2018, some industry firms like ConsenSys reportedly fired up to 60% of their workforce, announcing plans to hire 600 employees afterward.

According to some sources, the current conditions of the crypto job market do not look too gloomy though. A spokesperson for the FTX crypto exchange told Cointelegraph that the firm has not cut and does not plan to lay off any of its current 175 employees at the global exchange or 75 employees at the FTX US.

Per crypto hiring website by the Bitcoin influencer Anthony Pompliano, executives in the crypto and blockchain industry are still looking to hire people, with the PompCryptoJobs website listing about 600 open positions at the time of writing. The major global crypto exchange Binance is looking to hire nearly 1,000 employees, according to its official job openings website.

Gemini did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.