Crypto.Com To Cut 20% Jobs As Industry Rout Deepens After Ftx Collapse

The Singapore-based company’s announcement comes amid concerns about reserves and solvency across the sector, and only a few days after rival exchanges Coinbase Global Inc and Huobi announced their plans to lay off about 20 percent of their staff.

Crypto.com said on Friday it would be reducing about 20 percent of its workforce, as cryptocurrency exchanges face industry-wide challenges brought on by the collapse of FTX last year.

The Singapore-based company’s announcement comes amid concerns about reserves and solvency across the sector, and only a few days after rival exchanges Coinbase Global Inc and Huobi announced their plans to lay off about 20 percent of their staff. A source told Reuters last week that Genesis, too, had cut jobs, equating to 30 percent of its workforce.

The layoffs at Crypto.com would be its second in about six months, after it reduced jobs in July last year to weather the macro economic downturn amid rising interest rates.

The recent FTX collapse “significantly damaged trust in the industry,” Crypto.com Chief Executive Officer Kris Marszalek said in a statement.

“It’s for this reason, as we continue to focus on prudent financial management, we made the difficult but necessary decision to make additional reductions in order to position the company for long-term success.”

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX was the biggest in string of big crypto-related failures in 2022. It sparked a cryptocurrency rout and has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses of billions of dollars.

Amazon CEO says not adding cryptocurrency as payment option anytime soon

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said the e-commerce giant is not close to adding cryptocurrency as a payment option to its retail business, in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

He also said it might be possible to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its e-commerce platform and expects NFTs to continue to grow “significantly.”

NFTs, a type of digital asset that exist on a blockchain, have exploded in popularity in 2021, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars.

Jassy said cryptocurrencies will become bigger in the longer term, but added he himself does not own any bitcoin.

A growing number of companies have started to accept virtual currencies for payment, bringing an asset class shunned by major financial institutions until a few years ago closer to the mainstream.