The latest company in the crypto industry to lay off its staff is crypto exchange Luno, as it announced that it was axing off about 35% of its global workers.
Marcus Swanepoel, the CEO of the firm based in London, made the announcement of the redundancies on Wednesday at 12 p.m. London time in a town hall that was live-streamed.
| Name | Price | 24H (%) |
|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin(BTC) | $107,522.00 | 4.17% |
 Ethereum(ETH) | $4,070.56 | 4.42% |
 Dogecoin(DOGE) | $0.410170 | 1.74% |
 Cardano(ADA) | $1.10 | 1.47% |
 Polygon(MATIC) | $0.61 | -0.09% |
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Market Turbulence
The company’s statement said that the broader tech industry had had a difficult 2022 and this was also true for the crypto market.
It added that Luno had also felt the impact of the turbulence, which had affected its overall revenue and growth numbers.
According to Luno’s LinkedIn profile, the total number of its employees stands at 960, which means that it will cut about 330 jobs.
The marketing teams of the crypto exchange will take a hit in particular. A spokesperson for Luno said that it was unlikely to have an impact on its key compliance and operating teams.
Luno is part of the crypto conglomerate of the Digital Currency Group (DCG) and has offices in multiple countries, including southeast Europe and Asia, and Africa.
DCG’s Troubles
One of the numerous crypto companies that have found themselves in trouble after the collapse of one of the largest crypto exchanges in the market i.e. FTX, is DCG.
Its lending unit named Genesis filed for bankruptcy in the previous week. This came after the lender had had a dispute with crypto exchange Gemini.
This was due to a lending agreement between the two firms that had given Gemini clients high returns via Gemini Earn, the high-yield lending product of the exchange.
According to Gemini, Genesis owes it $900 million in customer funds. The exchange had halted Gemini Earn withdrawals after Genesis did so.
The funds had been lent to major institutional borrowers, but Genesis had hit pause on client redemptions.
The Crypto Industry
The crypto space seems to be experiencing what has been referred to as the ‘crypto winter’ since last year in May after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.
Market players have also become spooked due to the constant increase in the interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
The overall crypto market has seen about $2 trillion of its market value wiped out since it hit a boom in November 2021.
But, the start of this year has seen bitcoin enjoy a little bit of gains. Nonetheless, it still remains quite far from its peak.
The failure of TerraUST and the decline in the prices of digital assets resulted in a myriad of crypto failures, which included Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, FTX, BlockFi and Genesis.
Luno’s CEO said on Wednesday that there had been a number of shocks in the crypto industry, which had constrained funding and the focus had shifted to long-term profitability.
He said that they had anticipated the downturn and had been proactive in planning for the future, but their plan has been strained due to the sheer speed and scale at which things have happened.
