Crypto.com laid off 260 employees – then let go hundreds more
In June Cryptocurrency Exchange Crypto.com announced About 260 employees, or 5 percent of the workforce, were laid off due to the widespread downturn in the crypto market. But layoffs did not end there.
Sources inside and outside the company say The Verge that The company has quietly let go of hundreds more employees since the first layoffs. These new layoffs have not been made public, and it is difficult to estimate the exact number. Crypto.com has tried to limit knowledge of the extent of those departures even within the company, with CEO Kris Marszalek refusing to answer a question about the total number in a recent poll of only-hired employees.
All of this suggests that Crypto.com – one of the most visible players in the crypto market, with a Super Bowl ad featuring LeBron James and its own eponymous Stadium, formerly LA’s Staples Center – may be under greater financial stress than publicly known.
“We were assured that the layoffs would only affect 5 percent, 260 employees,” said a source with close knowledge of the situation The Verge. “People in the company recently noticed that many employees were disappearing from our internal slack or scheduled meetings.”
Due to the lack of internal transparency, one can only estimate the scale of this round of layoffs: We increased our staff by ~50 percent since 2021, and almost all of them were hired to provide growth. Now it seems that these extra ~1,300 employees are seen as the costs to be reduced, to save the business,” the source continued. The Verge have provided sources for this story with anonymity because of their fear of reprisals from company management.
The unpublicized layoffs were addressed in a Crypto.com town hall meeting that took place on August 10, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge. In a Q & A section, Marszalek was asked about the exact number of layoffs and whether management could be more transparent about this process. He replied that the redundancies were now complete, but that he was not obliged to give details of their extent.
“I want you to understand that this is a private company, and we don’t have to follow the public American company playbook … it doesn’t have to be an announcement, it doesn’t have to be a blog post,” Marszalek said. “Of course.” is everyone always interested in the number A number makes a great headline, it’s a great thing to gossip about. [But] As co-owners of this company, you should ask yourself, ‘Is it in my best interest for this number to be out there?’ And I’ll leave it at that. “
Marszalek’s response meant that “nobody was happy,” another source, an anonymous company employee, said The Verge. After losing so many teammates we needed support and strong leaders. I wanted someone to tell me it would be okay and I did a good job, but instead [it felt like] I was told to shut up and get back to work. It felt insulting. “
Details of unannounced layoffs were first reported by Decrypt Earlier this week, with the publication noting that recent employee reviews of the company on Glassdoor refer to “massive layoffs out of the blue” and criticizing the firm as “very unstable.”
“The company is hiding the fact that it has laid off more than 1,000 employees,” says one review, dated July 10. (The Verge was unable to confirm this number.) “They’ve removed the company directory so we can’t see the numbers going down. Management has been silent on the matter, and everyone is terrified that their job will be next. It’s not good for morale to see that 1/3 of the invite list at your next meeting are disabled accounts. “
A lack of clear communication about the layoffs has led to confusion within the workforce, particularly around tools that can give workers insight into the number of people employed by the company. In one case, employees reported an abrupt change in access to Bamboohr, an internal tool used by some employees as a staff directory. Crypto.com denied revoking access via Victoria Davis, head of corporate affairs. The company also shut down two Slack channels that included every employee, effectively eliminating a source of information that some employees used as an informal overview of all workers in the company. Davis said those channels were removed for security purposes.
Crypto.com did not respond to questions about the exact number of recent layoffs. Although, in a statement, Davis said: “As we announced in June, we implemented reductions to optimize our workforce due to continued external economic headwinds. Now, with a clear perspective on the impact and forecast of the bear market, our workforce footprint will align with our business priorities. We have a strong balance sheet and will continue to invest in product, engineering and brand partnerships going forward.”
Cryptocurrency businesses have faced disastrous financial conditions in recent months, as both prices and trading volumes have plummeted. Crypto Lender Blockfi Cut 20 Percent of Staff in June; That same month, crypto exchange Coinbase said it planned to lay off 18 percent of its workforce, or about 1,100 employees. In July, NFT marketplace OpenSea laid off 20 percent of its staff, followed by a similar announcement by Blockchain.com that it was closing offices and cutting 25 percent of its workforce (around 150 employees).
