U.S. crypto exchange Kraken is cutting staff to where it was 12 months ago. Back then, so octopuses in one blog post, the company relied on rapid growth to cope with the onslaught of new crypto investors. However, this growth was not sustainable.
However, the macroeconomic environment led to a Bitcoin bear market and ultimately to lower sales at Kraken. Therefore, the job cuts were now forced.
In June of this year, the company wanted to defy the general market trend and announced a hiring offensive. At that time the company said:
We have not adjusted our hiring plan, nor do we intend to make any layoffs. We have over 500 positions to fill for the remainder of the year […].
Not only Kraken had to let parts of the workforce go. Coinbase, crypto.com and the now insolvent BlockFi have also fired large parts of their employees.