Layoffs Spread Across the Blockchain Industry as Bear Market Cycle Impacts Crypto Firms

As digital currency prices have slid significantly in value during the past few months, the bear market cycle is starting to take its toll on the crypto industry’s workforce. On June 2, Gemini’s co-founders the Winklevoss brothers revealed the company would lay off 10% of its employees. The same day, one of the Middle East’s largest digital currency exchanges, Rain Financial revealed it had to lay off dozens of employees. Rain’s CEO said as cryptocurrency markets have slowed down, it has “impacted businesses across the globe.”

2022 is starting to look an awful lot like the latter half of 2018 as crypto companies worldwide are letting employees go due to the crypto bear market downturn. The start of the layoff news started in April when Robinhood announced it had to lay off roughly 9% of the company’s workforce.

In May, Bitcoin.com News reported on Bitso laying off 80 employees due to the crypto bear market. Not too long after Bitso’s announcement, the Coinbase-backed 2TM, the largest Latin American crypto exchange detailed it was laying off roughly 12% of the company’s workforce.

“The scenario required adjustments that go beyond the reduction of operating expenses, making it also necessary to dismiss some of our employees. The process we carried out was guided by transparency and respect, in order to honor the legacy of each employee who helped us get here,” 2TM explained.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss published a blog post that explained that 10% of Gemini’s staff would be laid off. “We are writing to update you on a difficult decision that will impact a number of you and the overall size of our team,” the Gemini co-founder wrote on June 2. “The crypto revolution is well underway and its impact will continue to be profound — But its trajectory has been anything but gradual or predictable,” the blog post adds.

Bitcoin.com News reported on Coinbase revealing that it was slowing the hiring process amid the crypto market downturn. Following that report, Coinbase then revealed it had to “rescind a number of accepted offers.” Furthermore, another company backed by Coinbase, Rain Financial Inc., said it had to lay off dozens of employees. Rain’s CEO and co-founder Joseph Dallago blamed the crypto bear market on the decision.

“As cryptocurrencies and global markets continue to slow down, this has, in turn, impacted businesses across the globe,” Dallago said in a statement to Bloomberg author Ben Bartenstein. “We have had to make tough decisions to be able to navigate through this period of uncertainty and we can confirm we have downsized our Rain workforce.”

Buenbit’s CEO detailed on May 23 that the company decided to reduce Buenbit’s staff. “After 2021’s exponential growth for the technology industry, we are going through a stage of global review,” Federico Ogue wrote. “Given this new context, we decided to reduce our staff and pause our expansion plan to focus exclusively on operations in the countries where we are present today and maintain a self-sustaining and efficient structure.”



No one knows how long the downturn will last, but layoffs are a sure sign of slowing growth and a bear market cycle. After the 2017 bull run, Bitcoin.com reported on numerous crypto firms laying off workers due to the bear market. However, when the bear market ended in 2020, the crypto industry saw mass hiring sprees and employers were in need of help to keep up with demand.

While many firms are pausing hiring or laying off workers already, there’s still a number of positions available in the digital currency industry. Fidelity revealed last week that it plans to expand its workforce amid the crypto downturn.

What do you think about the layoffs spreading across the crypto industry? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.