BlocksInform
Gemini – the cryptocurrency exchange owned by Winklevoss – has started its third round of job losses in less than a year, firing another 10 per cent of its employees.
Cameron winklevoss claims that the dismissal was due to a combination of macroeconomic pressure and "unprecedented fraud" in the cryptography industry.
The Gemini shrinkage squad.
As reported by The Information on Monday, the outlet received an internal message from Winklevoss stating that he’d been left with “no choice” but to reduce headcount.
It was our hope that there would be no further cuts after this summer, however, persistent negative macroeconomic conditions and unprecedented fraud perpetuated by bad actors in our industry have left us with no other choice but to revise our outlook and further reduce headcount,” he said in the letter.
The data in the cover book shows that Gemini had 1,000 employees in November 2022, which means that about 100 people were probably laid off. The last reduction occurred in July, with 7% of the company having lost their job, after 10% had been laid off a month before.
They’re not alone in taking such drastic measures: COINBASE laid off another 950 employees earlier this month after shafting 18% of its workforce in June. CryptoCom also cut another 20% of employees two weeks ago.
Most companies cite macro factors as their major challenge. Rising interest rates contributed to lower prices for cryptoassets in 2022, harming stock exchanges, miners and commercial enterprises.
The legal struggles of Gemini.
Winklevoss has been particularly aggressive in calling out Barry Silbert – the CEO of DCG whose trading arm, Genesis, went officially bankrupt last week. Winklevoss claims that Silbert and the two firms misrepresented the state of their financials to Gemini, whose Earn program has its users’ funds now locked inside Genesis.
As far as fraud is concerned, former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried was widely accused of the same thing after his exchange broke down in July. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has levied charges against him for defrauding his customers by funneling user funds to his trading desk, Alameda Research – to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Yet Gemini and Genesis are now both entangled in their own troubles with the dry, which alleges that each unregistered offering of securities to the retail investment audience via gemini win. Nexo, a rival crypto lending platform, has given up on servicing U.S. customers after numerous challenges from regulators along these same lines.
