California-based digital asset platform Anchorage Digital will lay off 75 employees, or around 20% of staff, as it restructures to account for regulation challenges in the U.S. and flagging demand for certain digital assets, according to a company statement and other comments on Tuesday.
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Fast facts
- The cuts follow a review of operations that lasted several months and “are in response to an evolving landscape facing the crypto industry at-large, shaped by regulatory uncertainty in the U.S., broad macroeconomic challenges, and crypto market volatility,” the statement said.
- Anchorage Digital Bank, the company’s digital asset bank subsidiary regulated under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will not be affected by the layoffs, and no customer assets were at risk from the recent closures of crypto-focused U.S. lenders Silvergate and Signature Bank, according to a spokesperson cited by Blockworks.
- Anchorage, which provides digital asset custody services for institutional clients, told Blockworks that the company has seen little demand for certain types of digital assets, including non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the Litecoin cryptocurrency.
- Global NFT trading volume fell to around US$1 billion last month from US$4.3 billion in April 2022 according to data from Cryptoslam.io.
- Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Tuesday that it will wind down NFT investments to focus on other areas for supporting creators on its platforms. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg also announced a layoff of 10,000 employees and closure of 5,000 open roles on Tuesday.
- In recent months, several cryptocurrency companies, such as Kraken, Coinbase, Crypto.com and Bittrex, have laid off staff, citing regulatory uncertainties and the worsened market sentiment following a series of crypto bankruptcies and failures last year.
- Anchorage Digital offers institutional investors crypto lending, trading, financing and staking services, and was valued at US$3 billion as of March 2023 according to Forbes.
See related article: Meta plans to wind down NFT initiatives on Facebook, Instagram to focus on other services