Gemini, a cryptocurrency trading platform founded by brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is the latest company in the industry to lay off a significant portion of its staff due to unfavorable market conditions.
Winklevoss’s cryptocurrency business Gemini Trust reportedly cut 10% of its employees amid the ongoing crypto market downturn, the founders wrote in a notice to employees on June 2, as reported by Bloomberg.
As part of its first major downsizing, Gemini will refocus on products that are “critical” to the firm’s mission, the brothers said, adding that “turbulent market conditions” will likely persist for some time. The statement says the following:
“This is where we are right now, in the contraction phase settling into a period of stagnation—what our industry calls a “crypto winter.” […] All of this has been exacerbated by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil. We are not alone”.
The new report comes after several major companies in the sector laid off some employees or put new hires on hold. In mid-May, the Coinbase exchange officially announced that it would be slowing down hiring and reassessing its headcount to ensure it continues to operate as planned.
Previously, major cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood laid off 9% of its workforce. The layoffs came amid shares of Robinhood HOOD hitting record lows as part of a long-term bear market in cryptocurrency markets.
The latest layoffs in the cryptocurrency industry are by no means new to the industry, as major cryptocurrency markets like Bitcoin (BTC) have historically moved in cycles, with large bear markets preceding larger gains. Amid a massive crypto bear market in 2018, some industry firms like ConsenSys reportedly laid off up to 60% of their workforce, announcing plans to hire 600 employees afterward.
However, according to some sources, the current conditions of the cryptocurrency job market do not look too bleak. A spokesperson for cryptocurrency exchange FTX told Cointelegraph that the firm has not cut back and does not plan to lay off any of its current 175 employees at the global exchange or 75 employees at FTX US.
According to Bitcoin influencer Anthony Pompliano’s cryptocurrency hiring website, cryptocurrency and blockchain industry executives are still looking to hire people, with the PompCryptoJobs website listing around 600 open positions at time of writing. The world’s cryptocurrency exchange Binance is looking to hire almost 1,000 employees, according to its official job openings website.
Gemini did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
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