Crypto firms in the Middle East and across the globe have begun to cut jobs and put hiring on hold as ripples of the cryptocurrency market crash spread across the globe – with Bitcoin falling more than 50 percent to less than $33,000 and the global crypto market shedding more than $2 trillion.
Rain Financial Inc, which is one of the Middle East’s largest crypto exchanges, has laid off dozens of employees amid a recent downturn in digital assets, Bloomberg reported.
The job cuts at Rain come as Gemini Trust Co, the crypto business run by billionaire brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, slashed 10 percent of staff.
Meanwhile, Coinbase Global Inc said it will extend its hiring freeze for both new and existing positions for the “foreseeable future” and rescind a number of accepted offers.
“As cryptocurrencies and global markets continue to slow down, this has in turn impacted businesses across the globe,” Joseph Dallago, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rain told Bloomberg said in a statement.
“We have had to make tough decisions to be able to navigate through this period of uncertainty and we can confirm we have downsized our Rain workforce.”
The company communicated the decision to staff this week. The cuts impact employees across a range of departments, Bloomberg reported.
Impact of the crashing crypto market
Cryptocurrency prices have declined this year from the highs reached in early November.
Rain last raised funds at a $500 million valuation, pledging to use the money to expand in the Middle East and Africa and double its workforce to 800 this year.
The largest US cryptocurrency exchange cited market conditions and ongoing business “prioritisation efforts” for the decision to cut jobs.
Meanwhile, some Wall Street analysts have warned that Coinbase’s costs are too high. The company has ballooned to 4,948 full-time employees, from about 1,700 just a year ago.
Hiring helped drive the company’s total operating costs to $1.7 billion in the first quarter, up 9 percent from the previous three months.
In a memo to employees on May 17, Coinbase’s chief product officer, Surojit Chatterjee, said the company will be increasing its focus “on critical revenue-generating products” by doubling down on core products while seeking improvements in developer productivity, Bloomberg reported.
Coinbase has gone from one of the stock market’s most hotly anticipated debuts to one of its most spectacular crashes in a little more than a year.
The firm’s market value has shrunk by about $50 billion since the end of its first day of trading last April, Bloomberg reported.
Shares of Coinbase fell to an all-time low in May, and even after recovering somewhat are still down about 80 percent from their debut.
The stock rose 7.6 percent to $73.82 on Thursday, and was little changed in post-market trading.
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