Coinjar sheds jobs in wake of FTX collapse

Blackbird-backed local crypto exchange CoinJar has cut around 20% of its staff amid the ongoing fallout of US rival FTX.

Around 10 staff were let go at the Melbourne-based fintech, which pioneered the Australian exchange sector a decade ago.

“Like many companies we’ve had to right-size parts of the business in response to poor market conditions,” CoinJar CEO Asher Tan said.

Last month in a statement Tan said CoinJar “held a small account balance with FTX to facilitate our OTC trading desk operations and client trades”, but it represented less than 1% of our gross assets and did not include any customer funds.

“Appropriate hedging activities have been conducted to ensure that there is no further impact to our balance sheet. We have no exposure to FTT or Alameda Research,” he wrote.

CoinJar launched in late 2013 with a bitcoin wallet that had 10,000 Australian users, having raised $500,000 in a Seed round led by Blackbird, which chipped in $228,000.

Nearly a decade later, the exchange has around 500,000 users and managing around $1 billion in funds.

The fintech is far from alone in trimming its sails. Back in August, well before the dramatic collapse of FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s associated trading company, Alameda, local crypto exchange Swyftx cut 74 staff amid warnings of an ‘extended period of economic uncertainty’.

Unicorn NFT gaming startup Immutable cut staffing by 6% back in July.

The cutbacks come as bitcoin sits down around 61% for 2022, amid several high profile failures and hacks in the crypto sector.