Crypto.com will cut 12% of its workforce as it moves towards enterprise AI

Singapore-based digital asset exchange Crypto.com is cutting 12% of its workforce as part of the company's broader shift to artificial intelligence.

CEO Chris Marszalek said in a statement on Thursday that the cuts are necessary to survive in an increasingly automated industry. Marszalek warns that companies that are slow to adopt AI tools will be outperformed by their competitors.

“Companies that move quickly and combine the best AI tools with high performers will achieve a level of scale and accuracy that was previously impossible. This is where we need to go,” he said.

A worker in Singapore said she found out about the outage after losing access to Slack in the morning, The Straits Times reported.

One senior executive said the organization had grown “stacked and battered,” slowing performance, and needed to better embrace new tools and technology to improve efficiency.

The third round of layoffs in recent years

The cuts are the third round of workforce reductions, after cuts in 2022 cut 260 employees, about 5% of the workforce, and another round of headcount reductions in 2023 of 20%.

Although Marszalek provided few details on which departments or roles were targeted, affected employees have been notified and are receiving transition support.

Crypto.com's job cuts come amid ongoing restructuring in the crypto industry, as companies are downsizing following the market crash.

Just yesterday, the Algorand Foundation announced a 25 percent reduction in its workforce.

Other layoffs announced in the crypto industry this year include Block (40% of the team or more than 4,000 employees), OP Labs (20 employees), Gemini (25% of the team), OKX and Messari.