Cryptocurrency marketplace Kraken will lay off 30 % of its employees

Cryptocurrency marketplace Kraken will lay off 30 % of its employees
The company cited a significant decline in trading volumes and a decline in the number of new customers due to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors as the reason for staff cuts

Crypto-exchange Kraken will cut about 1.1 thousand employees or 30% of its staff. The platform made the decision to survive the crypto crisis and adapt to current market conditions, according to a post by Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell on the exchange's blog.

Kraken is one of the first crypto exchanges. The platform has 211 assets and 660 trading pairs, with daily trading volume of $513 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

The reduction in the team is due to a significant decline in trading volume and fewer new clients due to macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures on financial markets, the announcement said. The exchange's customer base has increased over previous years and the platform has tripled the number of employees, but is now forced to reduce the team to the size it was a year ago.

Powell said the exchange has exhausted other ways to cut costs, and the layoffs will allow the platform to sustain business in the long term.

In late October, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken imposed restrictions on Russians due to EU sanctions, despite the exchange's head's negative attitude toward such restrictions. In February, Powell stated that if the exchange was going to voluntarily block the accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, it would first freeze all accounts in the United States.