French hardware crypto wallet provider Ledger is the latest industry player to lay off employees as the bear market bites deeper. It follows a raft of layoffs from other notable crypto and blockchain companies this month.
On October 5, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier sent a letter to staff stating the firm had made the difficult decision to reduce 12% of the roles.
Crypto Wallet Provider Drops Staff
“Ledger’s been through multiple bear markets and it’s these most difficult days that require focus,” said Gauthier in the blog post.
According to LinkedIn, Ledger has around 734 staff in total, meaning the cut could be as many as 88 people.
He blamed the macroeconomic situation, the current crypto bear market, and the fallout from last year’s multiple collapses for the decision.
“Macroeconomic headwinds are limiting our ability to generate revenue, and in response to the current market conditions and business realities, we must reduce roles across the global business.”
However, he said the firm will “come out of this period stronger,” and touted sales of its crypto wallets.
In March, Ledger announced a $109 million Series C funding round, placing its valuation at $1.4 billion.
Furthermore, the firm has been embroiled in several fiascos and controversies over the past few years. These include massive server breaches leaking thousands of customers’ personal information. These resulted in a wave of hacks and attacks on users.
Moreover, its Ledger Recover service that enabled third-party access to stored seed phrases was widely criticized by industry experts.
In April, Ledger was criticized again. This time for promoting a necklace product as part of the Ledger Nano X OnChain crypto wallet.
Gautier admitted, “We have made mistakes along the way,” adding, “To fail is part of the process.”
Other Crypto Layoffs
The Ledger layoffs follow similar moves by blockchain analytics provider Chainalysis. On October 3, the firm axed 15% of its employees, amounting to approximately 135 staff.
The firm blamed “market conditions” for the move, which was the second round of cuts for the company this year. The ongoing crypto bear market has reduced the demand for its commercial products, according to a Chainalysis spokesperson.
Earlier this month, Chia Network joined the steady trend of crypto firms cutting staff, axing a third of its workforce, 26 of its 70 employees.
In September, Binance.US let a third of its staff go as regulatory pressure intensifies and the company winds down its American operations.
Furthermore, venture-backed blockchain firm R3 fired a fifth of its workforce in September.
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