According to reports, up to 15% of the workers at the cryptocurrency custody service, Copper, could lose their jobs as the company streamlines its operations in the wake of challenging market conditions hurting the cryptocurrency industry.
The crypto bear market is driving companies like Copper to curtail operations, which would inevitably result in the loss of thousands of jobs. The London-based firm is bearing the brunt of the state of the market after it anounced that it was shelving its enterprise business, the software and infrastructure development part of the firm. This move saw the company mutually terminate a licensing arrangement with State Street, a leading global custodian bank.
On March 16, 2023, Copper announced that it was focusing more on its off-exchange ClearLoop settlement network, which eliminates the requirement to deposit and hold digital assets on an exchange before trading. Over 400 clients, including companies like Paradigm, Nickel Digital Asset Management, and Gate.io, use the network. BitMart reportedly joined ClearLoop Network as a custodian partner on January 19, 2023.
After what happened with FTX, Copper’s CEO, Dmitry Tokarev, noted that the company faced a rapid surge in demand for collateral management solutions, and they “had to prioritize the scalability of the business and really focus on the revenue streams that make the most sense for us.“
Copper wouldn’t be the first crypto firm to lay off its workers in 2023. Blockchain.com reportedly laid off 28% of its workforce; a few others such as Coinbase, Gemini, Huobi, and Crypto.com also laid off their staff three months into 2023 leading to a total of over 2,000 job losses in the digital assets industry alone. Anchorage Digital has also announced plans to reduce its staff headcount by 20%
Copper currently employs over 300 people. However, the redundancy process has just begun and so, the company couldn’t provide a precise estimate of how many employees would be affected.
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