Luno to lay off 35% of its workforce due to “market turbulence”

Cryptocurrency exchange company, Luno, announced yesterday that it will lay off 35% of its employees, adding its name to the growing list of industry players dismissing staff due to the bear market, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Bybit, Huobi, Gemini, and more.

“It is with deep regret that I have to announce that we will be reducing our overall Luno team by 35%, impacting Lunauts in all of our regions,” CEO Marcus Swanepoel wrote in a message to Lunauts on the company’s website.

He mentioned the “global economic downturn,” “even bigger downturn in the tech sector overall,” “crypto winter,” and other recent events in the crypto industry as reasons why it has been struggling.

According to its LinkedIn profile, Luno has about 960 employees. This means that more than 330 jobs will be affected.

The layoffs will have a significant effect on Luno’s marketing departments. According to CNBC, a spokesperson for Luno said that the layoffs would have “minimal or no impact on key operating, and compliance teams.”

“2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and, in particular, the crypto market.” Coinbase dismissed 18% last year and additional 950 people earlier this month. Bybit (30%), Huobi (30%), BitMEX (30%), and Crypto.com are part of that club, too.

Luno is under the umbrella of the distressed Digital Currency Group (DCG). While headquartered in London, it has offices across Europe, Africa, and South East Asia. DCG – one of the numerous cryptocurrency entities caught up in the FTX domino effect – has to cope with multiple issues.

It dismissed 10% of its staff last year and closed its wealth-management division. One of its subsidiaries – Genesis – filed for bankruptcy protection, following which Gemini’s Co-Founder – Cameron Winklevoss – threatened to sue CEO Barry Silbert.

“Unless Barry and DCG come to their senses and make a fair offer to creditors, we will be filing a lawsuit against Barry and DCG imminently,” he stated.

After a relatively quiet start to the year, the crypto market took its first major hit when Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) suddenly and unexpectedly crashed. Its value collapsed to zero, wiping out $18 billion in market cap from the cryptocurrency industry, despite the fact that the coin was supposed to be pegged to the US dollar.

The market as a whole, including crypto lender Celcius, was impacted by UST’s spectacular fall, which was accurately described as a “series of shocks” by Luno’s CEO, resulting in the termination of 150 employees.

The collapse of FTX added fresh complications to the already troubled cryptocurrency market, which had been shaken by the earlier collapse of UST.