The executive stated that the layoffs were due to concerns about “macroeconomic and geopolitical” issues that may affect the venture capital markets.
Blockchain software developer ConsenSys retains the ability to achieve its goals after recent layoffs, CEO Joe Lubin claimed in a Feb. 7 interview with Cointelegraph, stating that “we’ve retained virtually all of our capabilities.”
According to Lubin, the cuts were implemented “mostly because of potential headwinds and potential uncertainty” and partly because of declining volume in the ConsenSys ecosystem due to “macroeconomic and geopolitical” factors.
Lubin said his team had been concerned that impending troubles in the venture capital market would make it hard for crypto companies to raise cash, so the company had wanted to be prepared for this possibility, as he explained:
“There are some pretty concerning things happening still in supply chains, in materials and chips, in VC financing, potentially there’s a lot of dry powder out there, but there’s gonna be a lot of companies going into market at the same time. And VCS are not kind and generous. They’re going to withhold until some sort of shakeout happens in the tech space I believe.”
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Lubin said that the staff cuts have helped to provide “significant runway” to fund operations into the future and may even allow the company to buy some smaller firms that will “add really valuable pieces” to ConsenSys. In Lubin’s view, this has put the company in a strong position to weather whatever global economic troubles are coming in the near future.
Consensys announced layoffs of 11% of its workforce on Jan. 19. Several other blockchain companies also announced they were trimming staff in January, including Coinbase, Gemini, DCG, and Blockchain.com. This followed a year-long decline in cryptocurrency prices and trading volume in 2022. A report from CryptoCompare in October stated that the month had seen the lowest ever daily trading volume for crypto products, and Coinbase CEO Brian Amrstrong said in December that 2022 trading volume had been “roughly half” what it was the previous year.
