South African Crypto exchange platform has disclosed that it is laying off 35% of its global workforce, CEO Marcus Swanepoel pointed to a decrease in the company’s growth and revenue number as the main culprits for this massive decision.
CEO Marcus said, “2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry, and in particular the crypto market…as a result, we have to readjust our focus to maintaining our leadership position in our core markets and continue to lay a strong yet sustainable foundation for the business as we prepare to come out of this current cycle in a very strong position,”.
Swanepoel, however, assured customers of the safety of funds despite the news of the company axing its workforce, he stated that “I believe it’s also important to reiterate to everyone that customer funds are safe and operations continue as normal despite these very challenging circumstances.”.
According to CNBC reports, the layoffs will cut through the marketing staff however the cut will have “minimal or no impact on key operating and compliance teams,”, Luno disclosed. While the crypto exchange platform also disclosed that it will be moving its U.S and Australia operations.
Luno CEO, Marcu Swanepoel also disclosed that the company had “anticipated a downturn and proactively planned ahead with a business and funding model that can be resilient to some of these factors”, but could do nothing due to the pace at which the challenges hit them.
He also added that “What this means in practice is that in addition to streamlining our strategy to focus on our core strengths, we need to also substantially decrease our cost base – which includes employee headcount in all of our markets – in order for us to be set up for success going forward,”.
Luno was founded in South Africa in 2013 and later acquired by the Digital Currency Group (DDG) crypto conglomerate in 2020, a deal that was meant to increase the company’s global recognition and penetration. It currently boasts of 10 million customers in 40 markets.
With 960 employees running multiple operations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. This layoff is expected to affect 330 employees, while Luno co-founder and CTO, Timothy Stranex resigned from the company in December after being with it for a decade.
