Crypto Exchange Kraken Lays Off 30% of Staff in Response to Market Downturn

This article originally appeared in Crypto Markets Today, CoinDesk's daily newsletter diving into what happened in today's crypto markets.

Crypto exchange Kraken is laying off 30% of its global staff – around 1,100 people – in response to the downturn in the crypto market, the company said on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared in Crypto Markets Today, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter diving into what happened in today's crypto markets. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Kraken said in a blog post that the macroeconomic and geopolitical factors impacting financial markets since the start of the year have led to lower trading volumes and new client sign-ups.

"This downturn in the markets has had a negative impact on our revenues, and we now have a clear view of the path forward to ensure Kraken can continue to operate healthily and serve our clients for the long term," the crypto exchange said, in part.

The crypto market has sunk this year, with bitcoin (BTC) losing 18% of its value in November alone and two-thirds of its value since the end of 2021. The total crypto market cap is down by more than two-thirds in the past 12 months.

Companies that ramped up staffing levels during the boom years have had to cut back during the decline. This month alone, exchange Coinbase (COIN) trimmed 60 positions and bitcoin financial-services firm Unchained Capital laid off more than 600.

Kraken, on the other hand, said as recently as June that it was looking to expand as other companies laid off staff, saying it wanted to hire another 500 people.

Other News

Crypto prices rise: BTC cracked the $17,000 threshold for the first time since the early part of November. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $17,060, up 3.6% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH), the second-largest crypto in market value, was recently changing hands just below $1,300, a 6.6% gain from Tuesday, same time. Other cryptos were largely moving upward, with UNI, the token of the smart contracts-based Uniswap platform, up more than 6% and popular meme coin DOGE rising more than 3%.

But November is dismal: Bitcoin fell in value by more than 18% for the month and ether tumbled 21% amid the collapse of crypto exchange giant FTX and the ensuing fallout.

FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection little more than a week after CoinDesk reported irregularities on the balance sheet of its trading arm Alameda Capital, and other companies with exposure to FTX were forced into survival mode.

Still, a few tokens soared above the mess, including BAND and LTC, which jumped 57% and 38%, respectively.

Equity markets enjoyed a memorable day as investors, buoyed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks at the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy on Wednesday, sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.4%, the S&P 500, which has a strong technology component, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 3% and 2.1%, respectively. Brent crude oil, a measure of energy markets, sank 0.2%.

Altcoin Roundup

A key tone shift in crypto markets during the month was just how dramatically they diverged from the path of traditional markets. Stocks rose as investors processed speculation that the Federal Reserve might slow the pace of interest rate hikes as soon as December. The S&P 500 is up 2.2% in November, while gold climbed 7.8%.

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