The crypto tax company Koinly announced on December 6 that they will be letting go of over 14% of its staff to ensure the company’s survivability throughout the crypto winter and the worsening bear market that has been affecting all businesses operating in or adjacent to the crypto industry.
The FTX collapse certainly created more difficulties for companies that want to remain profitable in this industry and may have caused some managers to rethink their strategies in terms of hiring.
Cutting stuff is the right move for some
Koinly faced strong criticism from its former employees.
The reduction of the team by 14% is not something that many took well, but some former staffers said that the company has been firing people left and right throughout 2022 and the recent announcement comes as a surprise to many because staffers were used to being fired without any prior notifications.
The CEO of Koinly Robin Singh was especially quoted as the main initiator of many staff cuts with some people saying that he was responsible for firing over 100 permanent employees from the London and Sidney departments.
While losing a hundred employees is bad for any company, it is a strong indicator that the company has been struggling with preserving its bottom line.
The large downsize is an attempt to right the ship and become even leaner amidst a very concerning period of uncertainty in the crypto market.
Companies like Binance, KuCoin, Bybit, and many others also announced that they will be stopping new hiring or reducing the number of permanent positions.
The inherent volatility of crypto companies
The vast majority of all organizations working in the crypto industry are tech startups that are innately volatile and often have a lot of changes in their corporate structures.
While some of such changes can be attributed to experimenting and optimizing, the ongoing wave of staff cuts across the domain is a sign of something different.
In the end, these decisions should be positive for companies. They will become leaner and more flexible, but people losing their jobs won’t find any consolation in this notion.
