Argentine cryptocurrency trading app Lemon Cash has laid off about 100 employees (38% of its staff) amid a difficult industry environment. CoinDesk reports.
CEO Marcelo Cavazzoli said in comments to the publication that the optimization hit offices in Argentina and Brazil. He added that an additional factor was the lack of a clear horizon for recovery in the venture-capital market.
“There was a huge wave of investments in Latin America […] — not only in cryptocurrency, but in technology more broadly — with gigantic rounds in fintech. I believe this has made the technology sector in the region too dependent on further fundraising,” said Lemon Cash’s CEO in an interview with The Block.
In July 2021 the app raised $16.3m. Cavazzoli said the Series A round was extended and an additional $27.8m was raised.
“This gives us a basis to weather the winter, which we expect will arrive on the investment front. We are not dependent on additional funding in the coming years,” he emphasised.
According to the CEO, Lemon Cash’s leadership delayed plans to expand into Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay to the end of 2022.
Cavazzoli also said that FTX Ventures participated in the extended round “with a very small amount.” Lemon Cash has minor investments in Alameda Research, equal in size to the investments of Sam Bankman-Fried’s company, which the management does not expect to recover.
Earlier, reports indicated that staff reductions were announced at Gemini, Bitso and the parent company of Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin.
Coinbase reduced its workforce by about 18%, the crypto-lending platform BlockFi by 20%. According to press, Huobi will lay off 30% of workers, the gaming NFT studio Immutable by more than 20%.
Staff reductions were also announced by Coinbase, Huobi, crypto lender BlockFi and institutional-focused platform NYDIG.
In November, media reported layoffs at Galaxy Digital, BitMEX and Digital Currency Group. In the same month, about 134 employees at Dapper Labs remained out of work.
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