SpaceShift reported this week that it would be cutting down its workforce count. In short, it would undertake layoff. The company said it would be laying off 30% of its employees and let go 37 employees. SpaceShift is a major crypto exchange in the crypto market.
SpaceShift issued a letter to its employees and the users using its platform announcing the decision. Erik Voorhees, CEO of the company, said in this letter that the present conditions in the crypto market, the so-called crypto winter has left the company with no other possible alternative than laying off the employees to balance the cost and revenue ratio and to be able to adjust to the falling market conditions. He further said that the company is letting go, 37 employees, bringing down the team by a third.
After reaching its highest ever point in the year 2017, the cryptocurrency market is now showing the bearish trend and how. During that period many companies like ConsenSys, Bitmain, and along with ShapeShift expanded their operations, services, and market aggressively to exploit as much as possible, often going outside their core business pattern.
During that period, when the market was bullish, ShapeShift grew at a high rate of 3,000 percent; during the similar period, the cryptocurrencies’ prices were beyond $800 billion. The exchanges in the market were witnessing record-breaking, and even the prominent investors from other markets also were funding the cryptocurrencies with open pockets to leverage as much from thriving market as possible.
Voorhees said:
The company rode high and fast when the market was thriving, and the businesses were growing unseen rates. No business industry in the world had seen such a vast and rapid growth before. And in a similar way when the market took a U-turn, the scenarios and the conditions of the businesses were equally dramatic.
But, soon when the market entered the recovery phases, and the crypto values started falling by 70 to 80 percent from their all-time highs, the struggle began. Suddenly, investors and funding companies were away from the crypto market; revenues feel down, and trading got reduced.
Most of the companies by then were operating vastly not just into the crypto market but in other markets too. And when the market started falling, they run out of enough resources to handle their extended operations.
He introspected and confessed in the letter saying,
As a company, they have made many mistakes. One of those mistakes would be the laking focus. The company has learned a lesson that many possibilities attracted their attention and they had to risk their financial resources. They were looking for a legal review, which they keep on looking again and again.
The companies like Bitmain, ConsenSys, along with ShapeShift itself, have laid off 30 to 50 percent of their employees so that they can to focus on their core businesses. Bitmain cut all the departments which were dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI).
Companies are having to cut their resources and employees to be able to rebuild their focus or come to on the track, is not really an adverse scenario. Companies are in a way going back to their roots so that they can serve their core customers and grow in their core areas.