According to the three persons in the know, crypto trading company NYDIG has reduced its employees by about 30%, or about 100 workers, during the previous few weeks.
One insider claimed that the firing had been ongoing for “several weeks.” The Wall Street Journal initially reported the layoffs late on Thursday, which estimated the number at 110 workers.
An ex-employee of NYDIG described the situation as “a trading desk mentality where nobody talks to anyone. You can disappear and nobody will know for months.”
NYDIG acquired $1 billion in funding in late 2021 to establish a Bitcoin platform ideal for institutional application. The platform was intended to connect with banks and credit unions, giving large segments of retail banking clients access to bitcoin on a never-before-seen scale. “Bitcoin for all” was the company’s campaign slogan.
Nevertheless, the crypto market has worsened since NYDIG’s fundraising. Bitcoin’s price dropped under $20,000 per token, falling by 70% from its all-time high of about $67,500 in November 2021.
The former employee commented that NYDIG put all of its financial eggs in one basket but afterwards found that these banks were not prepared. They burned through all of this cash on the pretext that they would make bitcoin accessible to the general public. They made a mistake with their main strategy.
The leadership changes coincide with the layoffs as well. Early in October, the firm announced that its president Yan Zhao, and CEO Robert Gutmann will resign and rejoin NYDIG’s parent business, Stone Ridge Holdings Group. As CEO and President, respectively, Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad, both NYDIG executives, would take over.
Stone Ridge, an alternative asset management that focuses on specialized investment techniques including weather reinsurance and medicinal royalties, was founded by Gutmann and Zhao.
