Crypto Exchange Gemini completes second round of redundancies less than two months after 10% of employees were removed – TechCrunch

Just seven weeks after the Gemini crypto exchange cut about 10% of the workforce due to “turbulent market conditions”, the start-up has made a second round of layoffs, TechCrunch has experienced, and there may be more on the way.

The company had not communicated the extent of Monday’s layoffs internally, which led employees to speculate on the exact number of employees who were laid off in this latest downsizing. A source close to the company noted that there was a reduction of 7%, or 68 members, in Gemini’s company-wide Slack channel on Monday morning.

Gemini has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The same source, who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of public anonymity, said the company laid off employees because of what it described as “extreme cost cuts.”

Last week, an internal operational plan document was shared around the office and on an anonymous professional network Blind on July 14, but taken down shortly after, the source shared. The document highlighted a plan that would take the company to around 800 employees, which was 15.7% less than the 950 employees at the time.

“It has come to my attention that at least one team member thinks it’s a good idea to post an excerpt of our technology operations plan on a third-party website (Blind),” Camerini Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, wrote in a Slack message at the time. “Wow, super lame … if you leak company information, you show a low level of awareness and respect for your employees who benefit greatly from the openness we try to create and promote here.”

TechCrunch looked at a picture of the current Slack message. Winklevoss also said that the message was a “friendly reminder that Karma is the blockchain of the universe – an unchanging ledger that keeps track of positive and negative behavior.”

“We are going to the moon. We will need cosmic consciousness to get there. Earthly consciousness will not be enough,” Winklevoss added. “If you’re showing the behavior of a first-time person, it’s time to get up or bend, if for no other reason than to avoid an expensive bill in the future.”

In recent months, a wave of crypto-focused companies have laid off employees. Last week, the NFT marketplace OpenSea reduced its employees by 20%. A number of other companies, including Crypto.com, Coinbase and Bybit, are also cutting staff due to volatility in the crypto market.

This is a development story and will be updated as new information becomes available.