- Anchorage digital joins crypto firms on the layoff route as it cuts off 20% of its workforce.
- Crypto bank Anchorage attributes layoff to a strategic plan to help them focus.
- Anchorage has not announced its decision was influenced by Silicon and Silvergate’s collapse.
Anchorage Digital, a crypto bank, has announced its decision to lay off 20% of its workforce, which is 75 of its employees, giving the uncertainty in regulations in the U.S. as a reason for its decision.
The cryptocurrency bank labeled their decision to lay off 75 of their employees as strategic planning to help better focus the resources available and point out the broad macroeconomic challenges facing the crypto space.
It also added that the reoccurring market volatility was another factor that could have contributed to the shift in the bank’s priorities.
Anchorage Digital added that the current state of the market had boosted the demand for their products, and the client assets that were kept under their custody are currently at an all-time high. The same macroeconomic market state and regulatory situation create headwinds for the bank and the crypto industry.
Anchorage is well known as the first United States-based crypto firm to have been granted a national trust bank charter directly from the office of the controller of the currency back in 2021.
The bank also expressed its confidence in the digital assets landscape and in their bank’s ability to create regulated solutions for digital asset holders.
Anchorage’s decision to lay off its staff is coming at a time when there is a decline in the U.S. banking system, especially with how chaotic it has been after the collapse of three regional backs in just under a week.
Silicon Valley Bank, Signature bank, and Silvergate bank went under by March 8. Their collapse prompted the federal deposit insurance corporation to take an extra step towards guaranteeing all customer deposits for Silicon Valley and signature banks. The standard threshold for this move is $250,000.
Anchorage Digital has not said anything pointing to their decision to cut off workers connected to the recent forced closure and collapse of other banks, but it would not be a far-fetched move.
The tech and crypto space went through massive layoffs during the last quarter of 2022 and towards the first month of the year; many corporations cited the state of the crypto market and tech space as a reason for the layoff of workers.
Many corporations let off workers to better manage their resources, reduce the money going into staffing, and focus more on keeping the company going, deciding to return to it when the market state is better.
Conclusion
While the layoffs in the crypto space were at a high when the year began, it has slowed down considerably since the year started, especially in comparison to how many cut-offs happened last year, with at least 3,000 positions cut off from several crypto firms.
