Crypto companies are tightening their purse strings in the first month of 2023, with at least 2,900 crypto staff leaving 14 crypto companies in January.
The latest company to reportedly start layoffs is crypto infrastructure provider Prime Trust which has cut its workforce by a third according to reports report.
The reduction will equate to approximately 100 employees being cut as Perdana has 312 employees on LinkedIn at the time of writing.
Other recent cuts in the last few days include 30 staff from the crypto platform Matrixport being let go according to a January 27 Bloomberg report, while a previous January 23 report from The Information said about 100 staff were removed from the Gemini crypto exchange. .
The largest staff layoff for the month of January was initiated by crypto exchange Coinbase which cut the number of employees by around 950 employees on January 10.
Peer exchanges Crypto.com, Luno and Huobi saw reductions of around 500, 330 and 320 employees respectively.
Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its subsidiaries also experienced significant layoffs with 485 workers being fired in January alone as the company hit its financial crisis.
DCG-owned Luno experienced the most layoffs, while DCG itself cut 66 jobs, its subsidiary lending platform Genesis cut 63 jobs and asset management company HQ Digital closed affecting 26 jobs.
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Rounding out the list are 200 staff members released by crypto bank Silvergate, 110 employees cut from the Blockchain.com exchange and 96 staff terminated from MetaMask’s parent company ConsenSys.
Meanwhile, 20 staff members were released from the SuperRare nonfungible token (NFT) market.
The staff cut comes despite Bitcoin (BTC) performing strongly for the month, hitting a target near $25,000 as institutional demand continues to increase.
However, large-scale crypto industry layoffs are not isolated. About 48,000 people were let go in January from just four companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce.
While some may believe there is more gloom ahead, crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital believes there has never been a better time to start a blockchain company claiming bear markets provide “less noise and distraction from building.”