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Layoffs in the cryptography industry appear to have slowed considerably in the last month, with approximately 570 cryptography employees being laid off in February, compared to approximately 2850 in January.
Cointelegraph compiled the figures based on publicly reported layoffs and found job cuts were spread across at least 12 companies over the 28-day period, but noticeably lacked the triple-digit crypto exchange layoffs compiled in January, such as those from Coinbase, CRYPTO.COM and Huobi.
Noticeably lacking the three-digit crypto-exchange layoffs compiled in January, such as those of Coinbase, Crypto.com and Huobi.
The most recent layoffs came from crypto elliptical analytics companies and messari, which reduced staff by 10% and 15%, respectively.
Founding Messari, Ryan Selkis, tweeted on February. 23 staff reductions were due to "adverse market winds" and restructuring of their internal teams. It is estimated that this affected approximately 27 staff.
1/ Yesterday, we took the difficult decision to restructure several internal messari teams, resulting in a 15% reduction in personnel.
We're grateful for the contributions of the teammates we have parted ways with, and will provide resources and connections to help them transition.
— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) February 23, 2023
Meanwhile, an Elliptic spokesperson told DLNews on Feb. The decision to dismiss 20 employees was a measure aimed at reducing operating costs.
It follows news from earlier in the month, when Chainalysis, another blockchain analytics company, revealed it had laid off 44 of its 900 employees, representing 4.8% of its workforce “primarily in sales.”
Neil Dundon, an Australia-based crypto recruiter told Cointelegraph “the spike in layoffs is a macro event not just in Web3 but tech in general fueled by fears of an extended recession.”
Data from layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi revealed there was a total of 24,572 employees laid off across 129 tech companies in February, down from 84,414 across 268 tech companies in January.
"web3 is still going to be hit to a more difficult degree at least until bitcoin slices out of the stock market. There can also be more severe regulatory concerns in web3 adding to the tip. There can also be more severe regulatory concerns in web3 adding to the tip.
On the higher end of layoffs in the month, nonfungible token (NFT) company Dapper Labs and Ethereum-scaling platform Polygon Labs both dismissed around 20% of staff as a result of internal restructuring.
A large part of this strategy consists of unifying all our teams under polygonal laboratories in order to stimulate growth.
As part of this consolidation process, we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by 20% impacting multiple teams and about 100 positions.
— Sandeep | Polygon Top 3 by impact (@sandeepnailwal) February 21, 2023
In a Feb. 21 Twitter post, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal explained the move was a result of unifying all its internal teams under Polygon Labs, leading to 100 jobs being cut.
In a Twitter message dated February 21, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, explained that this decision was the result of the unification of all its in-house teams under Polygon Labs, This has resulted in the elimination of 100 jobs. February 23, Dapper Labs Chief Executive Officer.
Immutable, the Australian firm behind another Ethereum layer-2 blockchain protocol, also reportedly cut staff during the month, reducing headcount by 11%.
Other firms to announce headcount reductions included crypto exchange Bittrex, NFT marketplace Magic Eden, institutional crypto custodian Fireblocks, software firm Protocol Labs and crypto media company The Block.
Payments company Affirm announced it was sunsetting its crypto program during the month amid a 19% staff cut, though it is not known how many employees from its crypto unit were dismissed as a result.
Related: Crypto recruitment execs reveal the safest jobs amid layoff season
Kevin Gibson, founder of blockchain recruitment firm Proof of Search agreed that the pace of layoffs appears to have slowed compared to January.
Related: Crypto hiring executives reveal the safest jobs in the midst of seasonal redundancies Kevin Gibson, Blockchain founder recruitment firm Research evidence agreed that the pace of layoffs seems to have slowed relative to January. "Jan was very important because he was following the boards [and venture capital] that were reviewing [the] 2022 results and getting ready for the worst," he said.”
“Companies are still building great products and the current teams are really stretched so more layoffs would be cutting into muscle right now for many companies.”
"Businesses continue to build excellent products and the current teams are really stretched so that more layoffs would cut into the muscle right now for many businesses."
