Crypto Winter is here!! (has been here for a few months)
Hope everyone's prepared for this, coz it may get a lot worse before it gets better... there will be lots of opportunities when it hits rock bottom
Good luck to all crypto believers and hodlers!! This too shall pass
https://fortune.com/2022/06/03/crypto-winter-freezes-hiring-coinbase-gemini/
A ‘crypto winter’ freezes hiring at Coinbase and Gemini
BY
SHERYL ESTRADA
June 3, 2022 3:48 AM PDT
Good morning,
Many CFOs believe putting Bitcoin on the balance sheet is too risky. Although cryptocurrency companies are accustomed to riding the wave of volatility, two announced on the same day that a “crypto winter” has resulted in hiring freezes, layoffs, and a rescinding of job offers.
In a blog post on Thursday, Coinbase Chief People Officer L.J. Brock announced an extension of a “hiring pause for both new and backfill roles for the foreseeable future." Brock said the company would "rescind a number of accepted offers." Those who recently got a job at Coinbase will need a plan B.
Brock writes that the hiring pause began two weeks ago to assess hiring needs regarding the highest-priority business goals. But the company concluded it must take more “stringent measures to slow our headcount growth,” he explains. He notes that the move will help the company navigate the current macro environment.
In a new Fortune report, Coinbase made crypto history on the Fortune 500. Then disaster struck, my colleague Declan Harty takes a deep dive into one of the first cryptocurrency startups in the country that launched a decade ago.
Harty writes that Coinbase: Went on to become the first crypto unicorn, nabbing a $1.6 billion valuation in 2017. It was the first crypto exchange company to list on Nasdaq in 2021. And it was probably the first stop for your cousin, third-grade teacher, and maybe even your grandma when wading into the wild waters of crypto. It certainly was the first company in history to spend millions bouncing a QR code around the screen during a Super Bowl ad, a gambit that resulted in more than 20 million visitors jamming up the site. Oh, and as of this year, Coinbase is the first crypto company to join the Fortune 500. Coinbase is now the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. by trading volume. Its co-founder and largest shareholder, Brian Armstrong, commands a net worth teetering just under $3 billion.
But the past month has been nothing short of brutal. Harty writes: In mid-May, the company shocked Wall Street by announcing that its once voluminous profits had plunged to a $430 million loss. Monthly transacting users, the holy grail for measuring customer activity, fell from 11.4 million in the final three months of 2021 to 9.2 million, and the company expects that to fall further in the second quarter. The stock has plunged 73% year to date, from a high of $252 to around $67. You can read the complete report here.
Also, on Thursday, Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced a hiring freeze. The company’s creators, twins Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, wrote in a blog post they’re extending a hiring pause “for the foreseeable future.”
The path of crypto “can best be described as punctuated equilibrium—periods of equilibrium or stasis that are punctuated by dramatic moments of hypergrowth, followed by sharp contractions that settle down to a new equilibrium that is higher than the one before,” they write. “This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis—what our industry refers to as ‘crypto winter.’” In addition, “we have made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce,” they write.
The crypto industry isn’t alone in cutting back on new hires. At least 68 tech companies tracked by layoffs.fyi have announced layoffs, including Better.com, Peloton, Netflix, Robinhood, Vroom, Doma Holdings, and Blend Labs, Fortune reported. Cutbacks or hiring freezes are taking place at Meta, Twitter, and Uber.
But there’s still a large number of employers in the U.S. that are hiring. There were 11.4 million job openings in April, slightly down from nearly 11.9 million in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week.
However, “If you are in a business where you're going to start getting pinched because people are going to use you less because of the rise of interest rates by the Fed, you’ve got to cut costs,” Lawrence Harris, professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, recently told me.
It looks like the belt-tightening has begun.
Hope everyone's prepared for this, coz it may get a lot worse before it gets better... there will be lots of opportunities when it hits rock bottom
Good luck to all crypto believers and hodlers!! This too shall pass
https://fortune.com/2022/06/03/crypto-winter-freezes-hiring-coinbase-gemini/
A ‘crypto winter’ freezes hiring at Coinbase and Gemini
BY
SHERYL ESTRADA
June 3, 2022 3:48 AM PDT
Good morning,
Many CFOs believe putting Bitcoin on the balance sheet is too risky. Although cryptocurrency companies are accustomed to riding the wave of volatility, two announced on the same day that a “crypto winter” has resulted in hiring freezes, layoffs, and a rescinding of job offers.
In a blog post on Thursday, Coinbase Chief People Officer L.J. Brock announced an extension of a “hiring pause for both new and backfill roles for the foreseeable future." Brock said the company would "rescind a number of accepted offers." Those who recently got a job at Coinbase will need a plan B.
Brock writes that the hiring pause began two weeks ago to assess hiring needs regarding the highest-priority business goals. But the company concluded it must take more “stringent measures to slow our headcount growth,” he explains. He notes that the move will help the company navigate the current macro environment.
In a new Fortune report, Coinbase made crypto history on the Fortune 500. Then disaster struck, my colleague Declan Harty takes a deep dive into one of the first cryptocurrency startups in the country that launched a decade ago.
Harty writes that Coinbase: Went on to become the first crypto unicorn, nabbing a $1.6 billion valuation in 2017. It was the first crypto exchange company to list on Nasdaq in 2021. And it was probably the first stop for your cousin, third-grade teacher, and maybe even your grandma when wading into the wild waters of crypto. It certainly was the first company in history to spend millions bouncing a QR code around the screen during a Super Bowl ad, a gambit that resulted in more than 20 million visitors jamming up the site. Oh, and as of this year, Coinbase is the first crypto company to join the Fortune 500. Coinbase is now the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. by trading volume. Its co-founder and largest shareholder, Brian Armstrong, commands a net worth teetering just under $3 billion.
But the past month has been nothing short of brutal. Harty writes: In mid-May, the company shocked Wall Street by announcing that its once voluminous profits had plunged to a $430 million loss. Monthly transacting users, the holy grail for measuring customer activity, fell from 11.4 million in the final three months of 2021 to 9.2 million, and the company expects that to fall further in the second quarter. The stock has plunged 73% year to date, from a high of $252 to around $67. You can read the complete report here.
Also, on Thursday, Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced a hiring freeze. The company’s creators, twins Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, wrote in a blog post they’re extending a hiring pause “for the foreseeable future.”
The path of crypto “can best be described as punctuated equilibrium—periods of equilibrium or stasis that are punctuated by dramatic moments of hypergrowth, followed by sharp contractions that settle down to a new equilibrium that is higher than the one before,” they write. “This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis—what our industry refers to as ‘crypto winter.’” In addition, “we have made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce,” they write.
The crypto industry isn’t alone in cutting back on new hires. At least 68 tech companies tracked by layoffs.fyi have announced layoffs, including Better.com, Peloton, Netflix, Robinhood, Vroom, Doma Holdings, and Blend Labs, Fortune reported. Cutbacks or hiring freezes are taking place at Meta, Twitter, and Uber.
But there’s still a large number of employers in the U.S. that are hiring. There were 11.4 million job openings in April, slightly down from nearly 11.9 million in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week.
However, “If you are in a business where you're going to start getting pinched because people are going to use you less because of the rise of interest rates by the Fed, you’ve got to cut costs,” Lawrence Harris, professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, recently told me.
It looks like the belt-tightening has begun.
