Top Crypto Fails of 2023: Crypto Layoffs and Hacks

The state of the crypto market has improved quite a bit over the last year. Prices are up, and the industry has settled somewhat following the aftermath of the FTX and Terra Luna disasters from 2022.

Nevertheless, there have been a number of high-profile crypto layoffs and failures of note this year so far, all of which can provide valuable market insight moving forward. Let’s get into it!

Coinbase

Crypto giant Coinbase laid off 950 employees in January of 2023 as part of an ongoing effort to cut costs in the face of crypto winter, during which one trillion dollars was wiped from the market cap.

This accounted for 20% of the workforce and followed a similar series of crypto layoffs in June 2022.

Crypto.com

Crypto.com let go of one fifth of its entire workforce in January, citing significant damage from the FTX collapse among other factors. This marks the second major series of layoffs at Crypto.com following a year of difficult marketing headwinds involving a Matt Damon ad that performed poorly, customer backlash against fee/reward changes, and poor financial performance.

Dapper Labs

Dapper Labs laid off 20% of its entire workforce in February of 2023, with approximately 100 jobs as part of an ongoing restructuring of the company. Dapper Labs was heavily impacted by the decline in interest in the NFT market throughout 2022, as well as a lawsuit alleging that Dapper Labs may be dealing in unregistered securities.

In November 2022, Dapper Labs also laid off 22% of all its staff.

Bitrue Exchange Hack

$23 million was stolen in a security breach at the Bitrue exchange in April 2023. Thieves apparently accessed the exchange’s hot wallet before withdrawing the funds in Ethereum, Gala, and other altcoins. The funds accounted for 5% of the Singapore exhcange’s assets, and Bitrue was trading over $2 billion in daily volume at the time of the attack. Bitrue has promised to fully compensate affected users.

Silvergate

Silvergate Capital lost 40% of its employees, 200 staff members in total, in January, and Silvergate Bank is being liquidated and shut down. The crypto-friendly bank was one of many institutions seriously affected by the collapse of FTX in 2022. Silvergate clients pulled $14 billion in assets when FTX failed, leading the bank to take out loans to cover its shortfalls before eventually failing itself.

Is Crypto Winter Over?

Many of the projects that faced layoffs had overscaled and overspent, misjudging the economic headwinds ahead of them. Crypto is a volatile industry, and only the companies that are licensed, regulated, and thoroughly vetted can succeed.

CryptoWallet.com is regulated by the Estonian FIU, which fully vetted our staff, capital reserve holdings, product, and business plan before renewing our license.

We can’t say if crypto winter is fully over, but we certainly know how to weather the storm. If you’d like to join us, you can make an account here or order the crypto card with the most supported cryptos in the world.

Here’s to a healthy, happy year ahead!