- Nansen’s CEO, Alex Svanevik, highlighted the reasons why the company had to lay off its employees.
- The brutal bear market of 2022 and Nansen taking on the surface area which was not among the firm’s priorities.
- Nansen joins the list of companies to reduce their workforce due to the overbearing crypto winter.
Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, has announced its decision to lay off 30% of its workforce, joining the list of several companies in the crypto industry that also had to lay off their staff due to the 2022 bear market in the crypto space.
On May 30, Alex Svanevik, the CEO of Nansen, took to Twitter to announce the tragic news, stating that the company would be reducing the size of its staff due to two significant reasons.
According to the statement shared on Twitter by Alex, the first reason stated that the company had scaled up the team within its first years of operation. Nansen chose to invest and build in a challenging market rather than scale back. Because of this, the organic growth of the blockchain analytics platform led to taking on the surface area outside its core strategy.
Nansen highlighted the second reason to be the same reason that most companies have explained to be their reason for laying off some of their workforces. The statement reminded the crypto community of the brutal bear market in 2022, which the crypto industry suffered.
“…our cost base is too high relative to where the company is today. We do have several years of runway, but our priority is to build a sustainable business,” the statement reads.
Alex Svanevik took full responsibility for increasing the workforce at the beginning as he expressed his hurt for letting go of the people who had contributed ‘creativity and hard work’ to Nansen during their time with the company.
He further addressed why the 30% staff cut was necessary for the company. Alex admitted that the Nansen team was committed to building the best workplace in the cryptocurrency industry; hence, for that to happen, organizational changes must be made for those retained in the company.
Meanwhile, those laid off should expect severance and support on their way out of the company.
Companies That Cut Off Their Workforce
Crypto exchange, Crypto.com, announced on January 13 that it would lay off 20% of its workforce. The CEO, Kris Marszalek, stated that although the company grew ambitiously at the start of 2022, the unfavorable economic developments and the sudden crash of FTX led to the crypto firm shedding off 20% of its staff.
Another crypto exchange, Coinbase, also announced on January 10 that it would cut down its staff by 25%. The company decided to lay off 950 workers after examining its 2023 scenarios and discovered that it would need to reduce its expenses to operate at total capacity without slacking in any department.
Conclusion
Nansen’s decision to reduce its workforce is a tragic yet strategic move for the company as it highlights its critical reasons for taking such a bold step. Companies had filed for bankruptcy because they could not assess their strengths and weaknesses before it became too late.