Gemini Cutting 10% Jobs in Wake of ‘Crypto Winter;’ Exchange to Focus on Critical Products

Crypto billionaires and co-founders of Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have announced that the exchange will ‘part ways with approximately 10% of the workforce.’

In a blog post on June 2, the founders remarked that the industry is in a contraction phase of “crypto winter.” Further adding that the market weakness is also compounded by the ‘current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil.’

Why the job cuts?

The Gemini heads have said that the company has shifted focus on “critical” products optimizing the teams for the “current, turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time.”

On the decision of job cuts, the blog stated, ” Every great company throughout history has faced similar challenges along the way and Gemini is no different. And as painful as this moment is, we ultimately see it as an opportunity to double-down on our strongest ideas and customer-centric products…”

Notably, as against last year, the crypto market has lost over 50% of its cumulative global market cap. Bitcoin, the largest coin by market cap, is down close to 56% at a trading price of $30,000, compared to its all-time high of $69,000 back in November 2021.

How price has impacted trading volumes

Back in January, Bloomberg had quoted Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Owen Lau, who had warned that plunging crypto prices “could drive lower trading volume when it gets to the point to discourage traders to get engaged.”

The analyst had added, “There is a possibility that digital assets price to go flat such as getting into a crypto winter after a price decline.”

Meanwhile, Coingecko’s April report for the previous quarter also underlined that in “Q1 2022 spot trading volume across the top-10 centralized and decentralized exchanges declined from $6.08 trillion to $3.79 trillion compared to Q4 2021,” reiterating that volumes have in fact taken a hit.

Moreover, the market didn’t get any respite following that, as Terra’s collapse created another round of turmoil in the market.

Gemini is not alone

Meanwhile, another Bloomberg report has cited sources that state that Coinbase-backed crypto exchange, Rain Financial Inc., has also laid off dozens of employees. As per several other media reports, tech companies, including crypto exchange Coinbase, have slowed down on hiring while Robinhood and BitMEX have also cut staff.

But not all fronts have slowed down. Recently, Binance Labs announced that it raised $500 million for a new Web3-focused investment fund right after Andreessen Horowitz launched a similar $4.5 billion fund.