Staff Layoffs Slow as Major Crypto Companies Expand Business

The tide is turning in the global jobs market as losses fall and crypto companies expand operations.

Crypto companies hired aggressively during the pandemic but had to cut staff amid tight macroeconomic conditions in the last 17 months.

Crypto Staff Layoffs Ran Into Thousands Last Year

Altogether, Coinbase laid off over 1,000 staff in the last 18 months. The exchange is fighting the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over claims it ran an unregistered brokerage.

Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com reportedly fired 2,750 employees in the year ending in March 2023.

Luno executive Vijay Ayyar announced his departure from the exchange in May. Gemini Exchange has sued Luno’s parent, Digital Currency Group, and its CEO, Barry Silbert, for not providing a concrete resolution to restore funds of Gemini’s Earn customers.

A recent Fortune article revealed several Binance executives who left after the SEC sued the exchange. CEO Changpeng Zhao denied the alleged staff departures were because of the lawsuit.

Blockchain reporter Colin Wu claimed that Binance was cutting some of its 8,000 staff contingent in May. However, the proportion of staff allegedly affected was unclear.

In the artificial intelligence space, Google announced that it would merge teams from its Brain division with DeepMind as the latter pursues a chatbot with decision-making skills superior to ChatGPT.

US Jobs Market Strong With Fewer Cuts Per Month

Despite the recent doom, US job numbers suggest the labor market remains robust while prices fall due to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. 

According to June’s CPI, hourly and weekly wages grew, even as jobless claims fell in the third week of June. Nonfarm payrolls for June were also down.

Bloomberg data also suggests that despite major staff layoffs from US tech companies, the unemployed have found new jobs fairly rapidly.

Crypto and AI companies are also snapping up talent.

Boston, Massachusetts-based financial services firm Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, said it wants to increase staff by 25% this year. It onboarded a new legal director after the SEC sued Coinbase and later added a former Goldman Sachs adviser.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s new AI program X is actively recruiting engineers and researchers in Silicon Valley.

Despite initially being opposed to retail crypto trading, the Singapore Monetary Authority recently proposed new asset custody rules for exchanges, suggesting a softening stance. As a result, New York-based Gemini said it would add 100 people to its Singapore operation. 

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