Kraken Cuts 1,100 Staff Months After Announcing New Hires
Welp, that didn’t last long. Less than six months after California-based crypto exchange Kraken bucked industry trends by announcing its intention to hire 500 employees it went the exact opposite direction and said it would instead cut around 1,000 positions. The company’s CEO, Jesse Powell, announced the expected 1,100 layoffs (around 30% of the company) via a blog post in late November.
Powell said Kraken, like every other crypto firm, was slimming down in an effort to cut costs among one of the worse crypto downturns in recent memory. Kraken, according to the CEO, more than tripled its headcount in recent years to adapt to a massive influx of traders jumping on the crypto bandwagon.
“Since the start of this year, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have weighed on financial markets,” Powell said. “This resulted in significantly lower trading volumes and fewer client sign-ups. We responded by slowing hiring efforts and avoiding large marketing commitments. Unfortunately, negative influences on the financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options for bringing costs in line with demand.”
