Crypto.com Cuts 20% of Staff in Latest Retrenchment by a Top Crypto Exchange in Fight for Survival

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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Crypto.com has announced that it will cut 20% of its staff, citing macroeconomic headwinds and the collapse of rival exchange FTX as its reasons.

“While we continue to perform well, growing to more than 70 million users worldwide and maintaining a strong balance sheet, we’ve had to navigate ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events,” Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek wrote in a blog post on Friday.

The blog post added that the recent positive trajectory the company was on “changed rapidly” as a confluence of negative macroeconomic developments emerged.

The latest cuts for Crypto.com comes after the company in July last year announced its first round of cuts. With the collapse of FTX, however, that round turned out not to be enough to weather the storm.

“The reductions we made last July positioned us to weather the macro economic downturn, but it did not account for the recent collapse of FTX, which significantly damaged trust in the industry,” Marszalek wrote.

Marszalek further said that all impacted personnel have already been notified. He also made it clear that the cuts are “in no way related to performance,” but instead purely related to a need for cost-cutting.

In conclusion, the Crypto.com CEO said:

“I am confident in our ability to build and lead the market, and I am grateful to work with you all on the journey ahead.”

Audit shows full reserves

Like many other crypto-native companies, Crypto.com has had a tough year in 2022, as the collapse of many of its competitors stoked fear in the market.

In December last year, the company released its Proof of Reserves data from auditing firm Mazars Group, proving that its clients’ assets are fully backed one-to-one. At the time, Marszalek called the move “an important step for the entire industry to increase transparency and begin the process of restoring trust.”

“Crypto.com is fully committed to providing customers around the world a safe, secure, and compliant means of engaging with digital currencies,” he added in a comment published on the company’s website.

CRO token rallies

In the market, traders appeared to welcome the news of Crypto.com’s headcount cut, sending the price of its own Cronos (CRO) token up by a strong 5.3% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing.

Still, there is no doubt that the token has had a tough year in the market, being down more than 85% over the past year to a current price of $0.07.