Bitwise Slashes 14% of Staff Amid Crypto Prices Downturn

The San Francisco digital assets company reduced its workforce from around 180 to roughly 155, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Aug. 12), citing an email from Bitwise.

Even with these layoffs, Bitwise’s staffing levels are at their highest point to date, CEO Hunter Horsley told Bloomberg, adding that the company expects growth to continue as crypto becomes more embedded into the world economy.

Bitwise offers crypto products such as exchange-traded funds, including a $2.3 billion bitcoin ETF, a lineup of private funds, and separately managed accounts, the report added. The company oversees upwards of 70 products and commands about $9 billion in assets.

As Bloomberg notes, the cryptocurrency sector is mired in a nearly year-long downturn. Bitcoin, the most popular form of crypto, is down by nearly half to about $64,000 after a record high in October.

Crypto companies like Coinbase and FalconX have also cut staff, while BitMEX and Bitmart both announced they were shutting down last month. The Bloomberg report added that the sector is facing another obstacle: retail investors moving their money from crypto into sports betting sites and artificial intelligence (AI) companies.

A recent report from CoinDesk said that upwards of 100 crypto projects have either shuttered, filed for bankruptcy or gone dark for good this year, amid the market downturn and a series of cyberattacks on digital asset companies.