Blockchain code auditor CertiK has announced it’s slashing jobs in the light of the tribulations caused by a prolonged crypto winter. In an emailed statement sent from co-founder and CEO Ronghui Gu, the reason behind the move was cited as “evolving market dynamics”.
“In response to evolving market dynamics, CertiK undertook a strategic workforce adjustment today, impacting fewer than 15% of our colleagues. Our primary aim is to recalibrate our team structure to better align with our long-term strategic aspirations. CertiK remains committed to our mission and is confident that these changes are essential steps towards achieving our goals,” said the CEO.
The decision to reduce the workforce came despite the company raising nearly $150million of fresh capital last year. CertiK had collected about $88m in an equity offering in March 2022. Just two weeks later, it closed another multi-million dollar funding round backed by SoftBank Vision Fund and Tiger Global.
The two funding rounds established partnerships with global investing giants that provided traditional companies like CertiK the gateway to enter the Web3 space.
Back then, the CEO had commented on the financial standing of the company saying that CertiK is profitable and hasn’t touched the capital from its last fundraise.
Founded in 2018, CertiK is a security-focused ranking platform to analyse and monitor blockchain protocols and DeFi projects. It is headquartered in New York City and offers a set of end-to-end security solutions, with products ranging from code auditing, threat monitoring and asset tracing.
News about companies in the blockchain industry cutting their staff has been in abundance recently. This does not come as surprising as top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been trading much lower than their previous market highs.
The start of the month saw Chia Network lose a third of its staff as a result of the loss of its banking partnership with Credit Suisse. This had resulted in a costly delay of the firm’s effort to list as a public company in the US.
Cryptocurrency hardware wallet developer Ledger also slashed 12% of its workforce. Despite raising significant capital in the first half of 2023, while maintaining the company’s valuation, its chief executive officer Pascal Gauthier said that they would continue making decisions for the “longevity of the business”.
Other bad news was given by Yuga Labs, the firm that is known for high selling Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunk NFTs. Calling it a part of company restructuring, its CEO Daniel Alegre said: “After a recent period of thoughtful consideration, I have decided that we need to restructure the Yuga Labs teams. The implication of these changes is that a number of roles have been eliminated across the company, impacting some of your colleagues.”
DeFi lending protocol Yield Protocol, on the other hand, decided to permanently shut down all of its operations by the year’s end. However, it has confirmed that the firm will continue to provide full support until the end of the December 2023 series, after which support will be provided for withdrawals only for a limited time.
