Circle Cuts Jobs and Reduces Investment in Non-Core Activities

Circle is making a “marginal” reduction in its workforce and decreasing or ending investments in “non-core activities.”

“To maintain our strong balance sheet, Circle is redoubling its focus on core business activities and execution,” a Circle spokesperson said in an email to PYMNTS. “As a result, we have reduced or ended investments in non-core activities and reduced operational expenses, which includes a marginal reduction in headcount. At the same time, we have identified new areas for investment and are continuing to hire in key areas of focus on a global basis.”

The layoffs at Circle, a FinTech company and issuer of the USDC stablecoin, join several other workforce reductions reported by companies in the crypto space this year.

For example, it was reported in June that Binance.US, a crypto exchange, laid off about 50 people in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing parent company Binance of securities law violations.

In May, blockchain analytics provider Nansen said it was cutting 30% of its staff after years of rapidly scaling. CEO Alex Svanevik said at the time that the previous year had been “brutal” for the crypto sector.

“Although we’ve seen diversification of revenues via enterprise and institutional customers in the last year, our cost base is too high relative to where the company is today,” Svanevik said at the time. “We do have several years of runway, but our priority is to build a sustainable business.”

In January, crypto trading platform Blockchain.com cut 28% of its workforce, citing “significant headwinds” faced by the crypto sector, and crypto exchange Crypto.com cut its global workforce by 20%, citing “economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events.”

In other news from Circle, the firm announced the appointment of Heath Tarbert, one-time chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as its new chief legal officer in June.

“The opportunity to welcome Heath’s expertise and leadership to our executive team is an extraordinary step in Circle’s growth as a global company,” Circle Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said at the time. “As we continue building a bridge between traditional finance and Web3, Heath’s perspective, legal acumen and global regulatory experience will help us advance the utility value of USDC worldwide.”

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