Crypto market marker GSR has joined the list of firms that laid off their employees amid the crypto winter. GSR has reduced its company’s headcount by less than 10% of its previous number. In its case, the layoff was necessary to accommodate structural changes in Q3 and position the business for long-term growth.
“After a period of rapid expansion, our focus is on improving overall efficiency and continued development of our technology and trading capabilities,” a spokesperson from GSR commented.
Globally, GSR which is one of the oldest market makers has 300 employees. The firm increased to this number after Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of GSR mentioned the plan to expand its headcount. A few years ago, the company had only 25 employees and decided to increase it to more than 200 employees.
During that time, Rosenblum said “We’re doing so much recruiting for our own company it is hard to help our partners,” he said. “Thinking of hiring recruiters specifically to help projects we’re engaged with because on a daily basis they’re saying there’s not enough talent out there.”
The Asia-based cryptocurrency liquidity provider was founded almost nine years ago by Goldman Sachs executives Cristian Gil and Rich Rosenblum. GSR specializes in providing liquidity, trading, and risk management solutions. A few of its trading partners and networks are Coinbase, Blockchain Association, Binance, Fireblock, BitStamp and many others.
Crypto Industry Layoff List Expands With GSR
The rate of layoff in the crypto industry suggests that crypto firms are seeking strategies to outlive the crypto winter. London-based open banking startup TrueLayer laid off 10% of its staff across its four offices only last month. Also, the Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea reduced its headcount by 20%.
Interestingly, a few other companies have been through two rounds of layoffs like in the case of 2TM. The Brazilian crypto unicorn retrenched 100 employees in September after 80 of them were laid off in June.
Several other firms have opted for bankruptcy processes to protect themselves against their investors and creditors. Bitcoin mining firm Compute North is one of the most recent in this category. After Compute North filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it received first-day motions from the Bankruptcy Court in charge of its proceedings.
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