The Algorand Foundation on Wednesday joined the ranks of crypto firms cutting staff, shedding 25% of its fewer than 200 employees, citing “the uncertain global macro environment” and a broader crypto downturn.
The cuts come as a wave of layoffs spreads across the industry. In February, the Gemini Space Station (GEMI) said it would eliminate about 200 positions, about a quarter of its staff, a number that had grown to 30% by mid-March. On Thursday, Crypto.com said it is trimming 12%, about 180 roles.
That’s on top of 20 employees who were cut at OP Labs, the company building layer-2 blockchain Optimism, earlier this month, and the five full-time employees and three contractors let go of PIP Labs, the team behind Story Protocol, 10% of its workforce. Messari, a crypto data provider that now bills itself as an AI-first company, announced its third round of layoffs since 2023, along with a CEO change, without giving a number.
The official explanations varied. Algorand pointed directly to macro conditions and weak token prices, though many framed their cuts as a pivot toward greater use of AI in the workflow.
“AI is now too powerful not to use at Gemini,” the company said in its letter to shareholders. “Not using AI on Gemini will soon be the equivalent of showing up to work with a typewriter instead of a laptop.”
“We’re joining the list of companies integrating enterprise-wide AI,” a Crypto.com spokesperson told CoinDesk on Thursday, pointing to increased efficiency that requires fewer employees. CEO Kris Marszalek at X said companies that don’t pivot towards integrating AI into their processes will fail.
Algorand’s cuts reportedly hit community management and business development roles, not positions overtly displaced by AI. To be fair, the company blamed the broader crypto community. Its ALGO token recently traded around $0.09, down 98% from its 2019 peak. Bitcoin the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has lost 20% this quarter.
Industry consolidation
Industry observers pointed to broader consolidation dynamics. Entire crypto sectors such as restaking, DePIN, and layer 2s that were once in line with talent have fallen sharply, while M&A activity is increasing layoffs as hires—employees acquired by buying a company—displace older employees.
“I don’t see any real indication that these layoffs have anything to do with large-scale AI workforce replacement,” said Dan Escow, the founder of crypto recruitment agency Up Top. “Entire categories like restaking, DePIN and L2s that were once robust with talent are basically non-existent. Companies are forced into cost-cutting mode to buy time to figure out how to execute next.”
The broader employment picture supports that reading. New job postings across major crypto job boards ran at about 6.5 per day in January, down about 80% from the same period a year earlier.
Just the companies mentioned in this story — excluding Messari, which did not provide numbers — have announced about 450 job cuts in just a few weeks. That may be the tip of the iceberg, in the crypto winter of 2022, CoinDesk tracked more than 26,000 job losses over the course of the year, a number that took months to become apparent.
