Crypto Firm Anchorage Digital Cuts 20% of Staff Amid US Regulatory Uncertainty
• Anchorage Digital, a crypto bank based in San Francisco, is laying off 75 employees, or 20% of its workforce, citing volatile market conditions and regulatory uncertainty in the United States.
• The company has faced issues with US regulators as it failed to put in place key controls to prevent money laundering and report suspicious transactions.
• Other crypto firms such as Kraken, ByBit, Silvergate, Luno and Gemini have also had to lay off staff this year due to poor market conditions.
Crypto Firm Anchorage Digital Cuts Staff
Anchorage Digital, a crypto bank based in San Francisco, is making substantial staff cuts in response to the current downturn in the crypto market and regulatory uncertainty in the United States. According to Bloomberg, the company is laying off 75 employees, or roughly 20% of its workforce. In a statement, Anchorage Digital cited a range of factors for their decision including volatile market conditions and unclear US regulations.
Issues With US Regulators
Less than a year ago, in April 2022, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency argued that Anchorage’s compliance program lacked staff and internal processes including money-laundering controls needed to verify customers in 2021. As such they failed to put in place key controls to prevent money laundering and report suspicious transactions.
Integration With Binance
In June last year however Anchorage did announce that it had integrated with Binance.US and gained commitments from crypto platforms CoinList, Blockchain.com , Strix Leviathan ,and Wintermute which were part of their efforts to build up a custody exchange network .
Despite this integration other crypto companies have also had to cut back on staff due to poor market conditions .
Kraken & Others Cut Staff
In November last year cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced major job cuts laying off 30% of its workforce or 1 100 people . This was an attempt by them “to adapt current market conditions” . December saw revelation that ByBit was planning on cutting its work force by 30% due Bloomberg stating more than 2 000 jobs have been cut within sector this year so far . January saw further cuts with Silvergate cutting 40 % staff & selling assets at loss covering 8 1 billion customer withdrawals . Luno owned by digital currency group cut 35 % global workforce & Gemini laid 10 % workers during bearish markets .