Crypto winter has hit Zug: a renowned trading platform is letting go one-third of its staff.
Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees is one of the more well-known faces of Switzerland's «Crypto Valley». His Zug-based trading plattform has seen exuberant growth since 2014, and drawn kudos as well as, more recently, criticism from renowned outlet «The Wall Street Journal».
The crypto founder struck a downbeat tone in a log post on «Medium»: the crypto winter, or the substantial fall in the asset value of many digital currencies last year, has hit Shapeshift. The firm is letting go 37 employees, a reduction of one-third of its total workforce.
Self-Made Crisis
If it seemed that Zug could buck industry-wide cuts, Shapeshift makes clear that Switzerland's burgeoning crypto economy will be no exception. At year-end, 3,262 employees in Switzerland and Liechtenstein were employed by 750 firms in the crypto sector.
According to Vorhees, the current situation is Shapeshift's own making: the firm said it had organizational, legal, people, and structural issues, in part from simply growing too quickly. Shapeshift then boxed itself into a corner by reinvesting proceeds directly into digital assets, leaving it especially vulnerable to the December tumble.
Shapeshift also had a major PR disaster on its hands following the «WSJ» item, which reported that the firm was party to illicit crypto transactions. Shapeshift denied and rebutted the accusations.
