As other crypto-friendly banks close, Anchorage Digital lays off 20% of its staff

Anchorage Digital, a cryptocurrency bank, plans to lay off approximately one-fifth of its staff, according to a report from Bloomberg on March 14.

Anchorage lays off 20% of its employees

Bloomberg reported that Anchorage would lay off 75 employees, or 20% of its staff, based on its statements. As a result of regulatory uncertainty, Anchorage laid off employees and said it would focus on being an “unequivocally qualified custodian.”

The layoff announcement by Anchorage comes shortly after three crypto-adjacent banks closed or were shut down by regulators. On March 8, Silvergate ceased all operations, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, and Signature Bank was closed by regulators on March 13.

Anchorage Digital is a federally regulated bank. Though Bloomberg highlighted Anchorage’s dispute with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last year, the company has not stated whether current events will have an impact on its banking operations.

Other businesses have laid off workers

While Anchorage is the first company to lay off employees as a result of the crypto banking crisis, several other companies have also laid off workers as a result of the general “crypto winter.”

The two biggest companies to do so were the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Crypto.com, which each let go of about 800 workers in January. Coinbase let go of 950 people. In the latter half of 2022, Kraken also let go of 1,100 workers.

Huobi, Gemini, Blockchain.com, Genesis, ConsenSys, Bittrex and Chainalysis, and Amber Group are among the other companies that have recently laid off employees. Protocol Labs, the creators of Filecoin, and the now-defunct Silvergate Bank also reduced their workforce.

According to January reports, 23,600 crypto jobs were lost in 2022, the previous year. The first three months of 2023 add thousands more job losses to that total.

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