Lending Platform BlockFi Cuts Staff By 20% As Bear Market Continues

Twitter icon  •  Published 1 год назад  •  Mark Weaden

As crypto firms rally to try and achieve profitability amidst these torrid times, leading Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading platform BlockFi has decided to cut staff in an attempt to reduce operational expenses

As crypto firms rally to try and achieve profitability amidst these torrid times, leading Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading platform BlockFi has decided to cut staff in an attempt to reduce operational expenses. 

BlockFi isn’t the first company to do this in the last few weeks, with Gemini, CryptoCom, and other boutique digital asset firms massively trimming their staff size as the downtrend continues. There was also a report last week about Coinbase turning away newly hired staff, as the company couldn’t commit to paying the new employees. 

BlockFi Cuts Staff

A company blog post from co-founders Zac Prince and Flori Marquez stated that roughly 20% of its 850+ employees are set to be laid off. The blog post cited “the dramatic shift in macroeconomic conditions worldwide,” as the reason for the staff cuts. 

The company views the market as moving into an “extended global recession,” assuming these measures will help to reduce the long-term impact on the company's performance. 

A sad turn for the firm, as the staff size has expanded by 150 since 2020, having to let go of many recently employed staff. The dramatic shift in the market has had knock-on effects across the industry and this is just another in a long line of issues.

The company must focus on ensuring they stay relevant by prioritising profitability, which will be done by eliminating four major operating expenses. This will be achieved by reducing marketing expenses and executive compensations, slowing headcount growth, and eliminating non-critical vendors. 

BlockFi boasts over 650,000 clients globally and wanted to ensure that the cuts did not indicate any chance of negative effects on the client's funds. According to recent reports, the company was recently valued at $1 billion, dropping significantly from its $5 billion valuations just the year before. 

The storm is certainly upon us. The cryptocurrency market reflects the global issue as well as any market. One hopes we’ll see some positive movements before the summer is over.

Author

Mark Weaden

Mark Weaden is a British researcher and crypto enthusiast, living in Barcelona. His work has been published on a variety of leading cryptocurrency sites.