Crypto lending firm BlockFi has announced slashing 20% of its workforce as digital asset firms grapple to face the bloodbath. This year, cryptocurrency markets have sunk to a new low on the 13th of June.
Sharing the news CEO Zac Prince tweeted that BlockFi has been affected by the “dramatic shift in macroeconomic conditions,” which have had a “negative impact” on growth.
Conceived in 2017, BlockFi has grown dramatically over the years, reaping benefits from low borrowing costs and the surge in crypto prices. Prior to the latest layoffs, the firm had expanded from 150 employees at the end of 2020, to more than 850.
Now, with the global market cap tanking below $1 trillion to $977 billion, around a 12 % fall since yesterday, almost every top coin has lost half or more than their previous peaks.
While this massive monetary downturn can be attributed to a host of factors, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, rising inflation figures, and worsening macroeconomic conditions have had a ripple effect on the crypto job landscape.
Crypto entities across the board have been forced to cut costs, as investors are increasingly opting out of the riskiest assets, pulling down trading volumes.
Two weeks ago, New York-based crypto exchange Gemini, said it would be laying off 10% of its workforce Crypto.com too followed the same route by announcing a staff reduction of 260 people.
Unlike BlockFi, A leading Crypto Firm Refused To Follow Suit
The most recent example was one of the biggest players in the crypto lending space- Celsius, pausing all withdrawals and transfers between accounts, due to the “extreme market conditions.”
However, there is one crypto firm that has refused to either slow down hiring or lay off employees. Speaking at the Consensus 2022 conference last week, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao a.k.a CZ said the firm has enough resources to expand its hiring and even focus on new acquisitions.
“We have a very healthy war chest; we in fact are expanding hiring right now,” Zhao said. “If we are in a crypto winter, we will leverage that, we will use that to the max,” he said, adding that the trading platform is “kicking into high gear in terms of M&A activity.”