Crypto Players BlockFi and Crypto.Com Announce Lay-Offs, Here's Why

Two Web3 firms, BlockFi and Crypto.com have announced lay-offs from their respective companies in the backdrop of the current industry slowdown. While BlockFi, the crypto trading and lending platform is firing around 200 employees from its workforce, exchange Crypto.com is letting go of up to 260 workers. Both the companies have cited similar reasons for shedding their workforces — the ongoing slump in the global crypto market. Registering a decline of 13.74 percent in the last 24 hours, the crypto market cap has shrunk below the mark of $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 78,00,655 crore).

Zac Prince and Kris Marszalek, the CEOs of BlockFi and Crypto.com respectively, informed about their corporate decisions on detailed Twitter threads.

“Like many others in tech, we've been impacted by the dramatic shift in macroeconomic conditions, which have had a negative impact on our growth rate. On the path towards profitability, we have been managing costs throughout our business such as slowing headcount growth and reducing our team size,” Prince wrote.

The BlockFi chief has also claimed that executive salaries for the company have also been axed in these times of turmoil.

On similar lines, Marszalek also said that for now, Crypto.com needs to optimise profitability.

“That means making difficult and necessary decisions to ensure continued and sustainable growth for the long term by making targeted reductions of approximately 260 or five percent of our corporate workforce,” the Crypto.com chief noted.

The crypto industry is currently facing a downturn, with several factors pressuring the situation further.

Earlier this month, for instance, crypto trading platform Celsius network suspended all withdrawals on its lending platform. The company defended its decision citing ‘extreme market conditions' and a need to ‘stabilise liquidity.

Binance crypto exchange has also halted BTC withdrawals for its users after transactions were getting stuck.

For now, Bitcoin has also taken a u-turn on the price charts.

On Tuesday, June 14 — Bitcoin values dipped by 16.51 percent. As per Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, BTC is trading at $23,331 (roughly Rs. 18 lakh). This tumble of the world's oldest cryptocurrency comes in the backdrop of the hiked inflation rate in the US as well as the recent crash of crypto lending platform called the Celsius Network.

On international exchanges as well, BTC fell by over 16.42 percent to trade at $21,924 (roughly Rs. 17 lakh).