The employees received an email giving the reasons and steps to take after their dismissal. Bitpanda ensures that there will be no more layoffs by maintaining a staff of 730 people.
Bitpanda, a European exchange for bitcoin (BTC), digital currencies, and other assets, has laid off 270 of its workforce to avoid an imminent recession. The company admits that it hired more personnel than it should have, which increased its operational costs.
Among the reasons for the dismissal, according to a statement given by the entity, is an excessive workforce staff which led these companies to suffer internal damage due to costs.
This situation took effect because, given the high demand for their products and services, encouraged by the rise in bitcoin prices, they committed coordination and hiring failures that made them have a larger payroll than they could maintain.
The entity also explained that it would intend to keep a workforce of 730 employees, who got guaranteed that there would be no more layoffs shortly.
Along with the layoffs, the statement also revealed that all hiring processes got immediately suspended. Many people were in the recruitment stage, but these procedures got instantly canceled.
Layoffs on the Rise at Crypto Firms
The entry of a possible recession, on which analysts highlight that there is more than a 50% chance of happening, made technology companies seek alternatives to protect themselves from the rude situation.
Companies like Tesla or Netflix cut their payroll to resist an imminent recession. Regarding the crypto space, Bitpanda was the only exchange to lay off staff. Other networks such as Coinbase and BlockFi also followed this type of procedure.
Regarding Coinbase, it considerably modified its growth projections for this year, encouraged by the current situation digital assets are experiencing in the market.
The recession directly harms the share price of large technology entities (including exchanges), which have lost up to 70% of their value this year. Coinbase saw how its shares abruptly went from trading USD 200 in January to hardly over USD 60.
This panorama could be encouraging the recent mass layoffs, as entities resort to these practices as methods of cutting budgets and covering operations costs.
Other exchanges making cuts in their workforce have been the Mexican company Bitso with more than 80 workers terminated, and the Argentine exchange house Buenbit, which decided to carry out massive layoffs of its staff. This scenario does not cover only companies in the cryptocurrency sector; the technology and financial companies in Latin America are also struggling with the consequences of this harmful situation.
By: Jenson Nuñez
