- Protocol Labs will eliminate 89 positions across network goods, member services, etc.
- 30,000 crypto firm employees have lost their jobs since April
Protocol Labs, the firm behind Filecoin, is making 21% of its employees redundant according to a blog post aptly titled “Crypto Winter Update” by CEO Juan Benet, published on Friday. He attributed the cuts to an “extremely challenging economic downturn,” especially, for the crypto market, which is forcing his company to minimize costs.
The factors
Benet wrote:
High inflation leading to high interest rates, low investment, and tougher markets have rocked companies and industries globally. The macro winter worsened crypto winter, making it more extreme and potentially longer than our industry expected. Millions of companies around the world have had to adapt to this dynamic landscape, and prepare for a longer downturn. No company is unaffected.
Protocol Labs will eliminate 89 positions across network goods, member services, corporate, and other teams. It hasn’t emerged whether the Filecoin team is affected.
Filecoin’s price todayis $5.57 with a 24-hour trading volume of $184.9 million according to CoinMarketCap. Filecoin trading volume is down 35%.
30K jobs in crypto cut since April 2022
Layoffs continue to plague the crypto industry, with almost 30,000 people losing their jobs since April. Notable job cuts include:
Jan. 13, 2023 – Crypto.com reduced its workforce by around a fifth, leaving 800 people to figure out how to bounce back from a layoff.
Jan. 12, 2023 – Crypto brokerage Blockchain.com let about 110 people go, corresponding to over a quarter of its total workforce.
Jan. 10, 2023 – Crypto exchange Coinbase announced plans to cut 950 jobs, about a fifth of the total positions at the company.
Jan. 5, 2023 – Ailing crypto bank Silvergate Capital laid off 200 employees.
A trend since last year
In December, crypto exchange Bybit made a 30% reduction of its workforce, laying off around 250 people. At the end of November, crypto exchange Kraken let almost a third of its staff go, an estimated 1,100 employees.
