- Gemini has added to the list of crypto companies scaling back staff numbers ahead of a crypto winter
- Gemini has added to BitMEX, Coinbase, and Kraken in reducing staff numbers
- The 2018 crypto winter was typified by similar actions
More crypto firms are slashing jobs as the downturn in the markets and fears over a longer term bear market increase. Two weeks after Coinbase announced that it was paring back its recruitment plans to focus on core areas of the business, Gemini announced that it was cutting 10% of its workforce and FullyCrypto has learnt that Kraken has done something similar. These moves suggest that, in the words of Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency market is in a “contraction” phase – in other words, a crypto winter is blowing through the space.
Big Guns Get Smaller
BitMEX started the ball rolling in April when it shed 75 employees (about a quarter of its workforce) in a sign that the downturn was starting to take its toll. Coinbase adding to the concerns last month when it announced that it had reduced its company growth expectations and scaled back its hiring plans, with Emilie Choi, Coinbase’s President and Chief Operating Officer, saying that, “Given current market conditions, we feel it’s prudent to slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals.
Gemini has followed suit, with the Winklevii publishing a blog post yesterday that referred to the looming “crypto winter” and saying that the company had reluctantly decided to “part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce.”
2022 Crypto Winter Impact Echoes 2018
FullyCrypto has also learnt that Kraken informed its employees of a reduced headcount this week, and it is likely that other organisations are feeling a similar pinch. The situation has echoes of late 2018, where Kraken alone laid off 10% of its workforce in September of that year and many smaller exchanges and projects went out of business.
Clearly, these organisations have decided to act before the crypto winter really hits in a hope of faring better when it does.
