Crypto Winter: Gemini Sheds Off 10% of Workforce in First Job Cut

Gemini, an American cryptocurrency exchange, says it has relieved 10% of its staff of their duties in preparation for an expected period of a downward spiral in cryptocurrency prices called a 'crypto winter'.

The exchange’s Chief Executive Officer, Tyler Winklevoss, and the President, Cameron Winklevoss, announced the job cut on Thursday in a blog post on its website.

The Gemini Co-Founders said the expectation of a continuous downside in the cryptocurrency industry has been “compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil.”

The executives believe that the decision will help the company to “double-down on our strongest ideas and customer-centric products.”

Additionally, they added that this step will position the company to “be the catalyst of innovation coming out of these leaner times that will help fuel the next cycle of crypto growth and adoption.”

The Co-Founders explained: “The crypto revolution is well underway and its impact will continue to be profound. But, its trajectory has been anything but gradual or predictable.

“Its path can best be described as punctuated equilibrium: periods of equilibrium or stasis that are punctuated by dramatic moments of hyper-growth, followed by sharp contractions that settle down to a new equilibrium that is higher than the one before.

“This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis, what our industry refers to as ‘crypto winter’.”

In addition, the executives noted that they have instructed team leaders of the exchange to ensure that they are focused only on products that are critical to the company’s mission.

Moreover, the team leaders have been instructed to assess whether their teams are right-sized “for the current, turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time.”

“After much thought and consideration, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce,” they added.

Also, they stated that tomorrow the company will hold "a company-wide standup" with all remaining employees to talk about the future of the exchange.

A Coming Crypto Winter?

Since January 2018, the cryptocurrency industry has seen price crashes that followed a crypto boom in 2017. This has led many crypto holders to sell off their cryptocurrencies.

Last year, there were expectations that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will see an upsurge in prices that will culminate in a downward spiral, which is similar to the cryptocurrency bubble of 2018. However, that did not happen.

Subsequently, 2022 became the focal point as speculators believe this year will tow the path of 2018 by going in a downward spiral in terms of prices.

While this has not happened, cryptocurrency prices have sunk this year from the peaks recorded in early November 2021. The prices are still struggling.

Furthermore, last month’s Terra-Luna crash greatly shook the crypto world.