Matrixport Joins Growing List of Crypto and Blockchain Companies Letting Employees Go

The crypto firm Matrixport, led by former Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu, is laying off 10% of the company’s staff, according to reports published on Friday. Matrixport’s COO, Cynthia Wu, cited a “shift in the regulatory climate” and “industry-wide capitulations” as reasons for the layoffs.

Jihan Wu’s Matrixport is letting go of 10% of the firm’s employees, according to multiple reports on Jan. 27, 2023. Bloomberg details that unnamed sources say the company’s head of business development and investor relations has left. The news follows another Bloomberg report, published in Nov. 2022, that said Matrixport was seeking $100 million in financing from investors.

At the time, the company told the publication it was engaging with investors. In addition to sources from Bloomberg on Friday, the company’s COO, Cynthia Wu, confirmed to Coindesk’s Omkar Godbole that the 10% cut in staff mainly stemmed from Matrixport’s marketing department.

“We’ve sharpened our strategic focus towards accredited investors given the significant shift in the regulatory climate following the industry-wide capitulations. Our teams have been aligned to reflect this change,” Wu told Godbole. “We continue to hire in the areas of compliance, legal, and product development, with reductions in marketing impacting 10% of our headcount.”

Matrixport’s layoffs amid the crypto winter are among the many cryptocurrency and blockchain companies letting employees go. Recently, Huobi reportedly let go 20% of its employees, and sources detailed this week that Gemini is letting go 10% of the exchange’s staff.

Coinbase reduced its headcount by 950 employees at the beginning of the year and Superrare cut 30% of staff around the same time. Additionally, thousands of crypto employees were let go during the last three quarters of 2022. Corporate giants like Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have also let go large numbers of employees in recent times.

What do you think about Matrixport’s layoffs and the thousands let go from the crypto industry as a whole since last year? Share your thoughts in the comments below.