Crypto Exchange Luno to Cut 35% of Its Workforce Due to Crypto Market “Turbulence”

London-based cryptocurrency exchange Luno announced on Wednesday that it will lay off 35% of its workforce citing turbulent markets, which have hit the entire cryptocurrency sector.

“2022 has been an incredibly challenging year for the technology sector in general and the cryptocurrency market in particular,” said Marcus Swanepoel, chief executive officer of Luno. “Unfortunately, Luno has not been immune to this turbulence, which has impacted our overall growth and revenue numbers.”

Luno is the latest in a string of cryptocurrency companies facing layoffs during what was dubbed the “cryptocurrency winter” by investors and traders after bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency markets fell 60% since January 2022 as of January 2023. This has wiped more than a trillion dollars of worth off the markets in the past year, leading to the high-profile bankruptcy of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. and, more recently, cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd.

“While we have anticipated a recession and planned proactively with a business and financing model that may be resilient to some of these factors,” Swanepoel added, “the scale and speed of everything that is happening, and all at the at the same time it has put significant effort on our original plan.

According to Luno’s LinkedIn profile, the company employs around 960 people, meaning the layoffs will affect around 336 people. The firm has offices worldwide in Singapore, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos and Sydney. Swanepoel explained that the layoffs will affect employees across all of its markets.

Luno is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, a cryptocurrency conglomerate involved in the FTX crash. More recently, another DCG subsidiary, cryptocurrency lender Genesis, filed for bankruptcy, owing creditors at least $3.4 billion. Genesis also announced layoffs of 30% of its staff earlier this month.

Swanepoel said the layoffs would have no impact on customers or operations and that the practice would be necessary to “substantially reduce” the company’s “cost base” in the future given current markets.

Other cryptocurrency firms that have been hit with layoffs amid continued bear markets and industry turmoil include cryptocurrency banking platform Silvergate Capital Corp., which laid off 40% of its workforce earlier this month and l cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has cut its staff by 20%. Other cryptocurrency companies that have laid off workers include cryptocurrency exchange Kraken which cuts its staff by 30%, Coinbase Inc. which cuts its staff by 18%, Crypto.com by 30% and Bitmex by 30%.

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