key takeaways
- Crypto exchange Gemini today announced that it will be cutting nearly 10% of its workforce.
- The exchange cited the prolonged crypto recession and “macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil” as reasons.
- Last month, Coinbase also said that it would be slowing down hiring, which means it too has been hit by the current crypto bear market.
Share this article
Gemini, the crypto exchange and custodian run by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is cutting 10% of its workforce to avoid a downturn in the crypto market.
Gemini lays out for the first time
It looks like Gemini is surrendering to the prolonged crypto bear market.
In a blog post on Thursday morning, Gemini, one of America’s largest crypto exchanges, announced that it will be sacking about 10% of its workforce to reduce costs as the crypto market goes through its seventh consecutive month of falling prices. .
“This is where we are now, in a phase of contraction that is settling into a period of stagnation – which our industry refers to as the ‘crypto winter,’” the twins said in an open letter to their employees. “This is all exacerbated by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil,” he said, adding that Mithun was not alone in the current situation.
Cryptocurrency prices have plummeted since the market reached a peak valuation of $3 billion in November last year. As is customary, falling prices usually lead to lower interest among retail investors, resulting in reduced trading volume and therefore less revenue for crypto exchanges such as Gemini.
Interestingly, while Coinbase has indicated its intention to slow down hiring, Gemini is so far the only high-profile crypto business that has begun to reduce its workforce. Despite dire market conditions, money has been flowing into the industry, with venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz making record-breaking earnings. $4.5 billion Binance Labs is raising funds in early May $500 millionAnd several crypto startups are growing north of $350 million per round at multi-billion dollar valuations.
According to today’s blog post, Gemini expects the market to eventually settle into “a new equilibrium that is higher than before.” Historically, the industry has been growing and shrinking in cycles, with each subsequent phase leading to new trends and narratives that engage more users and investors than ever before. Gemini sees the current contraction phase as an opportunity to “double-down” on its strength so that it can become a “catalyst of innovation” in the next growth cycle of the crypto market.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this article owns ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
