In June, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announcement it was laying off about 260 employees, or 5% of its workforce, due to the general downturn in the crypto market. But the layoffs didn’t stop there.
Sources inside and outside the company tell The edge this the company has quietly laid off hundreds of additional employees since the initial layoffs. These new dismissals have not been made public and it is difficult to estimate the exact number. Crypto.com has tried to limit knowledge of the scale of those departures even within the company, with CEO Kris Marszalek refusing to answer a question about the total figure at a recent employee-only town hall meeting.
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 his own named stadium, formerly the Staples Center in LA — could be subject to scrutiny. to greater financial stress than publicly known.
“We were assured that the layoffs would affect 5%, 260 employees only,” said a source familiar with the situation. The edge. “People at the company have recently noticed many employees disappearing from our internal or scheduled meetings.”
“Due to the lack of internal transparency, one can only estimate the scale of this series of layoffs: we have increased our workforce by around 50% since 2021, and almost all have been hired to fuel growth. Now, it seems these ~1,300 additional employees are seen as costs to be cut, in order to save the business,” the source continued. The edge granted the sources of this story anonymity due to their fear of retaliation from company management.
The unpublished layoffs were discussed at a Crypto.com public meeting that took place on August 10, a copy of which was obtained by The edge. In a Q&A section, Marszalek was asked about the exact number of layoffs and whether management could be more transparent about that process. He replied that the layoffs were now complete but that he was under no obligation to provide details of their extent.
“I want you to understand that this is a private company, and we don’t have to follow the US public company playbook…There doesn’t have to be an announcement , there doesn’t have to be a blog post,” Marszalek said. “Of course everyone is always interested in numbers. A number makes a great headline, that’s a good thing. to tell. [But] As co-owners of this business, you should be asking yourself, “Is it in my interest to have this number available?” And I’ll leave it at that.
Marszalek’s responses meant “no one was happy,” said another source, an unnamed company employee. The edge. “After losing so many teammates, we needed strong support and leaders. I wanted someone to tell me that everything would be fine and that I was doing a good job, but instead [it felt like] I was told to shut up and go back to work. It was insulting.
Details of the unannounced layoffs were first reported by Decrypt earlier this week, with the publication noting that recent reviews of the company’s employees on Glassdoor refer to “massive unannounced layoffs” and criticize the company as “very unstable”.
“The company is hiding the fact that it has laid off over 1,000 employees,” a review dated July 10 said. (The edge was unable to confirm this number.) “They’ve removed the company directory so we can’t see the numbers go down. Management has been silent on the matter and everyone is terrified at the idea that their work will be next. It’s not good for morale to see that 1/3 of the invite list for your next meeting are deactivated accounts.
A lack of clear communication about the layoffs has caused confusion within the workforce, particularly around tools that could 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, the company’s chief affairs officer. The company also shut down two Slack channels that included all employees, effectively eliminating a source of information some employees were using as an informal tally of all company workers. Davis said those channels were taken down for security reasons.
Crypto.com did not respond to questions about the exact number of recent layoffs. However, in a statement, Davis said: “As we announced in June, we have made reductions to optimize our workforce due to continued external economic headwinds. Now, with a clear perspective on the bear market impact and forecast, our workforce footprint will be aligned with our business priorities. We have a strong balance sheet and will continue to invest in product, engineering and brand partnerships in the future.
Cryptocurrency businesses have faced dire economic conditions in recent months as prices and trading volumes plummeted. Crypto lender BlockFi cut 20% of its staff in June; in the same month, crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it planned to lay off 18% of its workforce, or about 1,100 employees. In July, NFT marketplace OpenSea laid off 20% of its staff, followed by a similar announcement from Blockchain.com that it was closing offices and reducing 25% of its workforce (about 150 employees).
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