This cryptocurrency grant will have eliminated 2,000 jobs in six months. It symbolizes the difficulties of a sector destabilized by speculation, scandals and, more surprisingly, the rise in energy prices.
by Arnaud Leparmentier (New York, correspondent)
If only one remains, Coinbase hopes to be this one. The digital asset exchange platform announced, Tuesday, January 10, an abolition plan of 950 jobs, or about the fifth of its workforce. This is the second system of weight loss of the company after a first abolition of 1100 jobs in the summer of 2022, while the cryptocurrency galaxy is fighting for its survival. Coinbase had become one of the stars of Wall Street when it was introduced on the stock market in April 2021, the action reaching 429 dollars during the session. It is now worth ten times less and displays a total capitalization of $ 8.7 billion (8.1 billion euros).
The platform led by Brian Armstrong, 39, remunerated by invoicing high fees on the cryptocurrency it kept for its customers (approximately 0.5 % per transaction). All his income collapsed with the drop in cryptocurrency, but also fierce competition between the platforms (the first of them, Binance, had announced in the summer the free transactions, as is the case on the stock market United States), the excessive hiring of the company and the distrust of the cryptocurrency caused in November 2022 by the fraudulent bankruptcy of the FTX platform
“Coinbase is well capitalized and the crypto will not disappear”, nevertheless assures on his blog Mr. Armstrong, who seeks to reassure his troops, even if he will continue to lose money. “Dark times eliminate bad businesses, as we see at the moment. Better days are coming, and when they arrive, we will be ready.”
Small backwards: Bitcoin, pioneer of cryptocurrencies, was flew to 64,400 dollars in November 2021, behaving like a speculative value doped by the FED free silver policy, the American central bank. Then, from 2022 and with the tightening of credit, Bitcoin experienced a slow collapse, showing that this motto was neither stable nor safe, and was nothing of digital gold praised by his followers. As early as June 2022, Bitcoin fell below 20,000 dollars and continued its decline to stabilize around 17,300 dollars, its current course. Blockchain, technology that allows the existence of cryptocurrencies, has not resulted in the emergence of the new world promised by its promoters.
resounding bankruptcies
This reflux has caused considerable losses of makeshift, of more than $ 2,000 billion according to the CNBC channel, for many Bitcoin holders but also other cryptocurrency. He caused multiple bankruptcies, the most resounding of which is that of FTX, the Sam Bankman-Fried platform, which awaits his trial in New York. FTX leaders had simply used the capital of their customers to speculate and ended up losing this money.
You have 38.56% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.