Security-focused Chainalysis announced a cut of 150 employees, representing 15% of its workforce. Forbes reports.
In a corporate letter, chief executive Michael Gronager said that the project would have to leave the commercial market and focus on “more stable” government contracts.
Most of the layoffs hit marketing and business development teams focused on the private sector.
“Although Chainalysis still has opportunities for long-term growth as a leading software-development company, we are focused on efficient growth and, given market conditions, we currently deem it necessary to cut our costs,” said Madeleine Kennedy, head of communications.
In her view, there are numerous issues to be addressed in the public sector, including anti-money-laundering rules, market conduct, and consumer protection.
This is the second round of cuts for the company, which was valued at $8.6 billion in 2022. In February Chainalysis laid off 5% of its staff, citing a harsh crypto winter.
Over the past year, employment in the cryptocurrency sector fell by 10% — from 210,000 to 190,000 workers.
Layoffs were announced by Robinhood, Dapper Labs, Polygon, Magic Eden, Protocol Labs, Bittrex, Luno, Blockchain.com, Huobi, Bybit, STEPN, TrueLayer, Chia Network and others.