Celsius Network downsizes workforce by 25 pc, lays off 150 employees
Previously, the firm had announced a halt on the withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts due to "extreme market conditions."
Crypto lending platform has downsized a quarter of its workforce—nearly 150 employees—as it battles financial challenges. The firm comprises 650 staff members, as listed on its official LinkedIn page.
The developments were first reported by Calcalist.
Celsius Network, the American-Israeli crypto exchange, was co-founded by Alex Mashinsky, Daniel Leon, and Nuke Goldstein in 2017. As per reports, till June 2022, Celsius Network supported over 101,000 users worldwide with over $730 million in assets.
Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has downsized a quarter of its workforce
Centralised finance (CeFi) firms like Celsius have emerged in recent years to offer services akin to those offered by traditional banks such as paying interest on deposits and drawing loans, while also lending cryptocurrencies.
Previously, on June 13, the firm had announced a halt on the withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts due to "extreme market conditions". Earlier, there were speculations around the firm selling staked ETH (stETH) in large quantities in order to reestablish liquidity for customer withdrawals.
On June 25, Goldman Sachs announced it was looking to raise $2 billion from investors to buy the distressed assets. In addition, Celsius Network had hired restructuring consultants and attorneys to resolve the liquidity issue.
With the layoffs, Celsius joins the list of crypto firms downsizing their workforce due to the economic downturn. Since June, Coinbase has laid off over 1,100 employees and global crypto firms including, Gemini, Robinhood, BlockFi, BitMex, Crypto.com, Bybit, Huobi, Banxa, Vauld, and several other platforms have resorted to layoffs.
On the contrary, other global crypto exchanges including , , as well as Ethereum scaling solution , on June 16 announced that they were planning to hire thousands of new employees in the midst of the economic downturn. Kraken also announced that it would be hiring for 500 positions and Binance was hiring employees for 2,000 jobs worldwide.
Edited by Kanishk Singh