Crypto releases slow, with February releases down to 570
Crypto industry layoffs appear to have slowed significantly in the past month, with about 570 crypto workers laid off in February, down from roughly 2,850 in January.
Cointelegraph compiled figures based on publicly reported layoffs and found job cuts spread across at least 12 companies over a 28-day period, but significantly missing triple-digit crypto exchange layoffs in January such as Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Huobi. .
Instead, staff cuts were mostly in the double digits – affecting blockchain analytics companies, blockchain and software development companies, and digital asset platforms, among others.
The latest layoffs came from crypto analytics firms Elliptic and Messari, which cut 10% and 15% of their workforce, respectively.
Messari founder Ryan Selkis tweeted on February 23 that the staff cuts were due to “market headwinds” and an internal team restructuring. It is estimated that around 27 workers were affected.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Elliptical say DLNews reported on February 24 that the decision to lay off 20 employees was a move to reduce operating costs.
Following news from earlier this month, Chainalysis, another blockchain analytics company, revealed that it had laid off 44 of its 900 employees, 4.8% of the workforce, “mainly in sales.”
Neil Dundon, an Australian-based crypto recruiter, told Cointelegraph that “the surge in layoffs is a macro event not just in Web3, but tech in general, driven by fears of a protracted recession.”
Layoffs Tracking Data Layoffs.fyi revealed a total of 24,572 workers were laid off at 129 tech companies in February, down from 84,414 at 268 tech companies in January.
“Web3 will always be at a harder level, at least until Bitcoin is decoupled from the exchange,” Dundon said. “There may also be some fear of tougher regulations on Web3 to add to the point. But as always, crypto is resilient.”
At the end of the month releases, fungible token companies Wonderful Labs and Ethereum scaling platform Polygon Both labs laid off about 20% of their workforce as a result of internal restructuring.
In a February 21 tweet, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal explain the move was the result of consolidating all teams within Polygon Labs, and 100 jobs were cut.
On February 23rd, Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou confirmed another round of layoffs at his company after a first round in November, saying it was part of a restructuring to “enhance our focus and efficiency.”
Immutable, also the Australian company behind an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain protocol as reported reduce employees in the month, reducing the number of employees by 11%.
Other companies that announced staff cuts include crypto exchange Bittrex, NFT marketplace Magic Eden, institutional crypto manager Fireblocks, software company Protocol Labs and crypto media company The Block.
Payments company Affirm announced earlier this month that it was suspending its crypto program amid a 19% staff cut, though it’s unclear how many employees in its crypto unit were laid off as a result.
Related: Crypto hiring managers reveal the most secure jobs during layoff season
Kevin Gibson, founder of blockchain recruiting firm Proof of Search, agreed that the pace of layoffs has slowed compared to January.
“Jan was great, because he followed the tables [and venture capital] looking at [at] 2022 results and preparing for the worst,” he said. “We’ve seen fewer candidates released this month.”
“Companies are still building great products and current teams are stretched thin, so more layoffs would cut muscle for many companies.”
Gibson, however, warned that the US securities regulator could still “bring more pain”, while continued press coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX is “affecting public perception and mainstream adoption of the sector”.
