Luno, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), finds itself forced to lay off 35% of its staff, or more than 300 people. Its CEO, Marcus Swanepoel, revealed the information Wednesday in a public meeting, in which he called “an incredibly difficult year” for the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Luno lays off massively
The difficulties continue to accumulate for the giant Digital Currency Group (DCG). After being recently placed under investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the group sees its Luno subsidiary forced to lay off 35% of its staff.
Acquired in September 2020 by Digital Currency Group, Luno is an internationally active cryptocurrency exchange platform that had a prominent place in South Africa and Nigeria.
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In addition, DCG had participated in Luno’s seed fund in 2014. At that time, Barry Silbert, Group CEOextolled the merits and considerable expansion opportunities of Luno, which otherwise remained under the aegis of the pre-buyout CEO, namely Marcus Swanepoel.
It was he himself who informed his staff of this wave of massive layoffs during a public meeting last Wednesday, citing difficulties in the cryptocurrency market :
“2022 has been an incredibly challenging year for the tech industry at large and the cryptocurrency market in particular. Unfortunately, Luno was not immune to this turbulence, which affected our overall growth and revenue. »
According to a company spokesperson who spoke to CNBC, the layoffs discussed here primarily relate to the company’s marketing teams, although the number of individuals concerned would be around 330 people.
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The current situation of Digital Currency Group
Like its sister companies also under the umbrella of the Digital Currency Group, the 2022 market will not have done a favor for Luno, which had nevertheless been prepared to face many scenarios, according to its CEO:
“Although we anticipated a slowdown [du marché] and proactively planning a business and funding model that can be resilient to some of these factors, the scale and speed of all this happening, and especially at the same time, has put significant pressure on our plan initial “
Indeed, Luno is far from being an isolated case: Genesis, which is also a major subsidiary of DCG, recently filed for United States Chapter 11 protection. The company would be, in total, owing more than $3.4 billion to all of its creditors.
For this purpose, Barry Silbert and DCG set to face Gemini complaint soon, the platform is waiting to recover 900 million dollars from the Gemini Earn program. The CEOs of the 2 respective companies pass the buck, claiming that the other side is not making efforts to fix the situation.
Grayscale, another DCG subsidiary, is being sued by a New York hedge fund that the company is showing a certain lack of transparency regarding its relationship with its parent company. .
For its part, despite these dismissals, Luno says its clients’ funds are safe.
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Source: CNBC
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Passionate about the world of decentralized finance and the novelties brought by Web 3.0, I write articles for Cryptoast to help make blockchain more accessible to everyone. Convinced that cryptocurrencies will change the future very soon.
Maximilien Prue
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