Anchorage Digital lays off 20% of staff as other crypto-friendly banks shutdown

Cryptocurrency bank Anchorage Digital will lay off approximately one-fifth of its staff, according to a report from Bloomberg on March 14.

Anchorage lays off 20% of staff

Bloomberg reported that, based on statements from Anchorage itself, 75 employees amounting to 20% of the company’s staff would be laid off.

Anchorage cited regulatory uncertainties as the reason for those layoffs and said that it would focus on its role as an “unequivocal qualified custodian.”

Though Anchorage did not reveal any particular regulatory concerns, it is notable that it announced layoffs shortly after three crypto-adjacent banks closed down or were shut down by regulators. Silvergate halted all operations on March 8, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10, and Signature Bank was closed by regulators on March 13.

Anchorage Digital operates as a federally chartered bank. Though Bloomberg drew attention to Anchorage’s conflict with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last year, the firm did not state whether current events will affect its banking functions.

Other firms have performed layoffs

While Anchorage is the first firm to perform layoffs related to the crypto banking crisis, several other firms have laid off employees due to the general “crypto winter.”

Among the largest firms to do so were the crypto exchanges Coinbase ⁠— which laid off 950 employees in January — and Crypto.com ⁠— which laid off about 800 employees that same month. Kraken also laid off 1,100 employees in late 2022.

Other firms that have carried out recent layoffs include Huobi, Gemini, Blockchain.com, Genesis, ConsenSys, Bittrex and Chainalysis, and Amber Group. Protocol Labs of Filecoin fame and the now-defunct Silvergate Bank also carried out staff reductions.

Reports from January suggest that 23,600 crypto jobs were cut in 2022, the previous year. The first three months of 2023 add several more thousand job cuts to that statistic.