Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of Gemini Trust, a top crypto exchange, have announced they will lay off 10% of their employees due to the sputtering economy and decline in the value of many crypto assets.
In a blog post, the Winklevoss brothers explained:
“The crypto revolution is well underway and its impact will continue to be profound. But its trajectory has been anything but gradual or predictable. Its path 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. 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.” This has all been further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil. We are not alone.
To that end, we have asked team leaders to ensure that they are focused only on products that are critical to our mission and assess whether their teams are right-sized for the current, turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time. After much thought and consideration, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce.”
The news was delivered around the same time the CFTC announced an enforcement action against Gemini alleging omissions or misleading information in regards to certain products offered by Gemini.
Gemini is not the sole Fintech that has announced a workforce reduction as the sinking economy hits home. Some observers predict more layoffs are to follow within the Fintech sector as well as other industries as inflation continues to rise along with interest rates designed to cool the overheated economy.