Blockchain.com lays off 25% of employees due to harsh market conditions

Article Reading Time:
2 minutes.

A major US cryptocurrency exchange is reducing its presence in Latin America and is also suspending its expansion into gaming and non-fungible tokens.

Blockchaincom is laying off 25% of its workforce, about 150 people, due to “harsh market conditions.” In addition, the company emphasized the need to cover financial losses: the exchange currently has a shortfall of $270 million from lending to the hedge fund Three Arrow Capital.

The exchange announced that it will close its offices in SouthAmerica, and will also cancel plans to expand the team in several countries. According to company statistics, about 44% of the laid-off employees are in Argentina, 26% in the US and 16% in the UK. One of the CoinDesk experts said that such changes will return the company to the state of January 2022.

In Blockchain.com says the greatest demand for its services comes from the United States, Europe and Africa, not Latin America. Also, exchange clients most often use brokerage services than any other.

Over the past 16 months the company has increasedstaff from 150 to 600 employees. The efforts that the company is making to accumulate funds neutralize the consequences of the collapse of Three Arrow Capital, top managers assure. In addition, the company is scaling back its institutional lending business and ending all M&A activities, as well as suspending expansion efforts in its gaming and NFT businesses.

Top managers' salaries and compensationCEO earnings are also being cut, a company spokesman said. Consumer earnings remain strong and strong; Institutional earnings are flat but not up and will take time to recover, the spokesman added.

Let us remind you that the crypto exchange previously announced that it intends to file an application for a public offering of shares (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this year.