Chia Network lays off a third of its staff

The blockchain company Chia Network has laid off 24 of its 70 employees. CoinDesk reports.

“Unfortunately, we will lose a few remarkable people, as over the past several months we have faced a difficult financing situation,” explained the project head Gene Hoffman.

In his words, the company also plans to address the issue by selling XCH tokens. According to the publication, within its structure Chia has 2.6 million unencumbered XCH (about $70 million at the rate at the time of writing).

Meanwhile, the firm was unsure how they might be classified by the SEC. However, against the backdrop of Ripple case, Hoffman stated that “a thoroughly decentralised token may meet the current standards for the definition of a digital commodity.”

In response to the news, the price of XCH fell 3.4%, according to CoinGecko. At the time of writing the asset trades near $26.20.

In April, Chia, on a confidential basis, submitted a Form S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct an IPO. According to Hoffman, after losing Credit Suisse as a banking partner, the company found a new one in some American institution.

From May to September 2021, the coin’s price fell by 85% and triggered mass sell-offs of HDDs and SSDs used to mine it.