Protocol Labs, the company behind the Filecoin blockchain network for file storage, announced on February 3 that it will be undergoing some restructuring. CEO Juan Benet published a blog post on Friday titled “Focusing our strategy to weather the crypto winter,” to explain the layoffs. He stated in the blog post that it has been an “extremely challenging economic downturn, all around the world, and especially in the crypto industry.”
Protocol Labs Cuts Jobs in Response to Crypto Winter and Global Downturn
The blog post elucidated that “while we worked very hard to avoid this, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 89 positions (approximately 21%),” and further details of the layoffs were provided. Protocol Labs joins the list of companies in the crypto sector that have had to let go of employees during the “crypto winter.” Other blockchain-focused firms, as well as cryptocurrency exchanges like Digital Candy, Blockchain.com, Opensea, Huobi, and Gemini, have also had to reduce the size of their staff. The layoffs gained momentum last year and have continued through 2021.
In his blog post on Friday, Benet acknowledged the fact that the “changes will be tough for all Labbers” and the company will host a “PLGO All Hands” meeting on Monday to answer any remaining questions.
Filecoin’s FIL is currently ranked 35th in the crypto economy, based mainly on market capitalization. As of Saturday, Feb. 4, 2021: the market value of filecoin (FIL) was approximately $2.11 billion, with a global trading volume of around $136 million in the last 24 hours. FIL has risen by 65.7% against the US dollar in the past 30 days and outperformed other major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) during that time. Despite being boosted by 65.7%, it is still lower than 97% of its all-time high at $236 per coin, which was reached on April 1, 2021. As of 3:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 5, FIL was trading at $5.59.
