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Winklevoss Twins' Gemini Cutting 10% of Its Staff, Saying 'Crypto Winter' Is Here (cnbc.com) 39

Posted by BeauHD from the hold-on-for-dear-life dept.
Billionaire bitcoiners Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are laying off 10% of the workforce at Gemini, a first for the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange and custodian. CNBC reports: The twins announced in a blog post on Thursday morning that the industry is in a "contraction phase" known as "crypto winter," which has been "further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil." "We are not alone," the memo continued. Fellow crypto exchange Coinbase recently reported that revenue had fallen 27% from a year ago, as had overall usage.

Gemini -- which has been around since 2014 and is valued at $7.1 billion as of its last funding round -- has 1,033 people on its payroll, according to PitchBook, which translates to about 100 employees affected by today's layoffs. CNBC reached out to Gemini to ask for the exact figure, but the press team declined to comment beyond the blog post. As for next steps, Gemini has closed its physical offices today in order to protect employee privacy. Impacted team members will receive a calendar invite for individual conversations about separation packages and health care benefits. On Friday, remaining employees will take part in a "company-wide standup" to talk about its future.

The memo says that Gemini wants to focus only on products that are critical to its mission -- and team leaders will assess whether their teams are "right-sized" for the "current, turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time." "Today is a tough day, but one that will make Gemini better over the long run," the brothers wrote in the staffwide memo.
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Winklevoss Twins' Gemini Cutting 10% of Its Staff, Saying 'Crypto Winter' Is Here More

Winklevoss Twins' Gemini Cutting 10% of Its Staff, Saying 'Crypto Winter' Is Here

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  • "As for next steps, Gemini has closed its physical offices today in order to protect employee privacy." Closed to protect employees from idiot losers (loser idiots?) who will attack them when their crypto "holdings" (ie make-believe Monopoly toy currencies) go to z ee e ro.

  • Or do they hold "billions" in cryptocurrency?

    I know they were involved with FriendFace, but they were always in the news complaining how they got shafted by ZuckerFace.

    • They shouldn't have gotten a dime. Not that I think highly of Zuck, but ideas by themselves are worthless - it's being able to capitalize on an idea that has value. There wasn't anything novel about Facebook anyway, it was just a less ugly (by virtue of not letting users customize anything) version of MySpace.

    • Or do they hold "billions" in cryptocurrency?

      Why not both? [knowyourmeme.com]

      The rich rarely invest in a single asset.

  • Couldn't have happened to nicer people.

  • Getting laid off at times like these is bad. But at least the Winklevoss'es are handling the termination notices a bit better than a certain company [wikipedia.org] that did something quite unworthy of its name.

    • I would say anyone who works for a company with "cryptocurrency" anywhere in their mission statement, should have an up-to-date resume and some money in savings.

  • just a phase (Score:4)

    by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @05:19PM (#62588052)
    Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of blockchain; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the internet buried. Let the slaughter begin.

  • further compounded by the current turmoil (Score:3)

    by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @06:08PM (#62588210)

    further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil

    What?

    But cryptocurrencies are supposed to me magically immune to all that because it's made from maths and unicorn farts!

    Isn't that righ, reanjr?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      Yeah, shouldn't the makers of the world all be flocking to crypto to escape the decaying world that has not earned their presence? Crypto should be booming!
    • Yes, isn't crypto the ultimate uncorrelated hedge? Or is it more of an open Ponzi scheme?
  • that the fed is actively trying to cause. The Federal reserve has openly admitted they're trying to cause layoffs in order to lower wages because they think (wrongly) that doing so will get inflation under control.

    It's a symptom of our failing political and economic system, where the only way we can solve problems is with "Austerity", e.g. screwing over people who work for a living.

    The actual solution is to take back the $3.5 trillion given out to the top 1% during the pandemic (and then some) and u

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by linuxguy ( 98493 )
      Fed is trying to cause a recession. You got that part right. But they don't have much of an option. COVID required a lot of money printing. That is mostly responsible for the current strong inflation. And inflation cannot be tamed unless economy cools down a bit, by raising interest rates. Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

      All the armchair economists think they have the answers.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Tom ( 822 )

      It's a symptom of our failing political and economic system, where the only way we can solve problems is with "Austerity", e.g. screwing over people who work for a living.

      I've been watching this for two decades now and it's not even funny anymore. When the same alledged "cure" is brought for not just different, but opposite problems, you can be fairly sure there's a snake-oil seller in the room.

      Inflation too high? We need more Austerity.
      Inflation too low? More Austerity.
      Too many unemployed? Austerity!
      Not enough jobs? Austerity!

      The longer you live, the more you wonder if it's always been like this and you were just too naive to see it, or if it's fairly recent that the whole

  • The old Ponzi schemes have nothing on the new Ponzi schemes. What do these 1033 people do? What problem are they trying to solve?

    • >What do these 1033 people do? What problem are they trying to solve?

      Those 1033 people shill crypto obviously. To make more money for the douche twins obviously.

    • They are running an exchange. Like most of us these 1033 people try to solve the problem of the Maslow's Hierarchy.
    • They solve the problem of removing cocaine from hookers' asses in the most efficient manner.
  • Those two people have done nothing to benefit anyone. Bye.
  • "macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil" is exactly one of the reasons these brainiacs pumped 'decentralized' currency - to supposedly have stable wealth when the world goes to shit. But guess what - when the world goes to shit the best money and economy is backed by actual bullets, not a fucking blockchain, lol.
  • For when they go to the big house.
  • Aside from certain types of criminals (tax evasion, ransomware attacks, and large scale drug money laundering), is there even a market for crypto? - I'm kind of curious, because aside from Pyramid schemes (which are apparently legal in the crypto world, pending any legislation) I have not seen any usage marketed.

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