Kraken lays off 30% of staff as it looks to weather crypto winter

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to lay off 30% of its staff – 1,100 employees – as it looks to “adapt to current market conditions”.

Kraken lays off 1,100 employees

In a post on the company’s blog, co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell says the cuts take the company’s headcount “back to where it was only 12 months ago” following a period of rapid growth, adding the decision will “allow us to sustain the business for the long term”.

Powell says: “Over the past few years, hundreds of millions of new users entered the crypto space and millions of new clients put their trust in Kraken during that time. We had to grow fast, more than tripling our workforce in order to provide those clients with the quality and service they expect of us.

“Since the start of this year, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have weighed on financial markets. This resulted in significantly lower trading volumes and fewer client sign-ups. We responded by slowing hiring efforts and avoiding large marketing commitments.

“Unfortunately, negative influences on the financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options for bringing costs in line with demand.”

Powell adds all impacted employees have been notified and will receive “comprehensive support as they transition from the company”.

Kraken joins an ever-increasing list of companies to reduce the size of their workforce in recent times.

Fintech darling Stripe is cutting 1,100 jobs while Brex and MX announced layoffs in October, joining Indonesian fintech Xendit, BNPL giant Klarna, African challenger Kuda and Aussie crypto exchange Swyftx, among others.