Digital currency firm Blockchain.com has announced it’s going to be laying off approximately 25 percent of its staff, which amounts to about 150 separate people at the time of writing. The company is just the latest to fall victim to the bearish digital currency conditions which first began in 2022, and it doesn’t look like the trend is going to stop in the immediate future.
Blockchain.com Staff Members Are Made to Say Goodbye
Blockchain.com is also shutting down its office in Argentina. Initially, the company announced that it was going to spend this time looking to expand to other countries, though all those plans have been put on hold until the market can regain composure. Roughly 44 percent of the layoffs will pertain to employees of Argentina, while about 26 percent will hit U.S. employees and 16 percent will apply to staff members in the U.K.
Blockchain.com isn’t the only crypto company to be forced into “layoff mode” over the last few weeks. Not long ago, popular digital currency exchange Coinbase stated that it would be laying off about 1,000 people as it works to bring its operational costs down by more than 25 percent in the coming months. In the summer of last year, Coinbase was forced to undergo its first series of layoffs and let go of approximately 18 percent of its staff. Many traders thought the bad news for the popular trading platform would end there, but they were wrong.
In addition, Huobi Global also recently announced plans to release various members of its staff from employment, while last summer – just before Coinbase – Gemini in New York (headed by the famed Winklevoss Twins) said it was going to be laying off about ten percent of its staff, reducing its overall headcount from roughly 1,000 to 900. The company also took plenty of flak after it came to light that the layoffs were conducted via Zoom rather than done in-person.
Blockchain.com is one of several companies to have fallen victim to Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that went bankrupt in the middle of 2022. The startup lent approximately $270 million in capital to 3AC, though at press time, the co-founders of that company have vanished off the face of the Earth, and attorneys representing the company’s creditors are working hard to locate them.
A Once Rather Prominent Enterprise
At this stage, Blockchain.com has hinted it doesn’t expect to see its near $300 million ever again.
Blockchain.com was founded in the year 2012. At just over ten years old, the company has established itself as a solid crypto exchange and wallet platform. It even ranked number seven on CNBC’s recent Disruptor 50 List. The company has claimed it’s responsible for about one third of all bitcoin transactions and was previously valued at about $14 billion.
