Crypto.com laid off 260 employees — then quietly let go of hundreds more

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge

Around 260 employees were laid off by the exchange due to the downturn in the market. Layoffs did not stop there.

The company has quietly laid off hundreds more employees since the initial layoffs, according to sources in and outside the firm. It is difficult to estimate the number of layoffs. Kris Marszalek, the CEO, refused to answer a question about the total figure in a recent employees-only town hall meeting.

It seems that one of the most visible players in the cripto market, with a Super Bowl ad starring NBA star James and its own stadium, might be under financial stress.

According to a source with close knowledge of the situation, the layoffs would only affect 5 percent of the workforce. Many of the company's employees disappeared from their scheduled meetings.

Due to the lack of internal transparency, one can only estimate the extent of the layoffs: we increased our staff by 50 percent since 2021, and almost all of them were hired to fuel growth. The source said that the extra staff are seen as costs to be reduced in order to save the business. The sources of the story have been granted anonymity because of their fear of reprisals.

The layoffs were addressed in a town hall meeting that took place on August 10th. Marszalek was asked if management could be more transparent about the process of layoffs. He said that the layoffs were finished but that he was not obligated to give any information.

This is a private company and we don't have to follow the public US company example. Marszalek said that there doesn't need to be an announcement. Everyone is interested in the number. It is a great thing to gossip about a number. As a co-owner of this company, you should ask yourself if it's worth it to have this number out there. I am leaving it at that.

An employee at the company said that Marszalek's responses meant "everyone was happy". I wanted someone to tell me that it was ok and I was doing a good job, but I was told to shut up and go back to work. It was offensive.

One review states that the company is hiding the fact that they have laid off more than 1,000 employees. The number was not confirmed by The Verve. The company directory has been removed to prevent us from seeing the numbers go down. Everyone is scared that their job will be next because management has been silent about the issue. It's not good to see that 1/3 of the invite list is disabled.

A lack of clear communication about the layoffs has led to confusion among the workforce, particularly around tools that could give them insight into the number of people employed by the company. Employees reported that access to BambooHR, an internal tool used by some employees as a staff directory, was suddenly changed. Victoria Davis is the head of corporate affairs. The information source that some employees used as an informal tally of all workers at the company was eliminated by the company's decision to close down two slack channels that included every employee. The channels were taken out for security reasons.

The exact number of layoffs was not answered by the website. In a statement, Davis said, "As we announced in June, we conducted reductions to maximize our workforce." With a clear view of the impact and forecast of the bear market, our workforce footprint will align with our priorities. We have a strong balance sheet that will allow us to invest in product, engineering, and brand partnerships.

In the last few months, both prices and trading volumes have fallen. In June, BlockFi cut 20 percent of its staff, and in the same month, Coinbase said it would lay off 18 percent of its staff. In July, NFT marketplace OpenSea laid off 20 percent of its staff, followed by a similar announcement fromBlockchain.com that it was cutting 25 percent of its workforce.