Circle Layoffs 2019: Crypto Platform Fires Staff Days After CEO Resigns

Circle Trade is in a tight spot. The over-the-counter (OTC) trading business that is perhaps past its heydays had seen its co-CEO leave, an exchange they had for just over a year sold off, some key staff vacated, and rounds of layoffs -- all had taken place in 2019.

The woes continued as Circle sacked another batch of employees this month. The Block first reported of the company's new round of layoffs that booted 10 employees, which came just a week after co-CEO Sean Neville resigned.

Back in 2017, the company was known to have made a killing from Bitcoin's ascent to $20,000 in December. It had acquired Poloniex two months later for $400 million, which was seen as a move that would position the company ahead in the industry. The year also started smoothly with a report of about $24 billion in OTC sold in 2018, and that's despite the crypto bear market that year.

In March 2019, Circle also acquired equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest for an undisclosed amount as Circle plans to make tokenized assets in the future.

Then in May, layoffs started with Circle letting go of 30 employees. CEO Jeremy Allaire told digital currency news site Coindesk that their decision was a cost-cutting measure while citing regulatory hurdles as well. Those 30 employees represented 10 percent of their overall staff at the time.

"Circle remains strong and healthy, and we will continue to drive new product innovation and growth globally, working with jurisdictions that offer forward-looking policies regulating digital asset businesses, while we press for more balanced crypto policy in the U.S.," Allaire told Coindesk.

In August, The Block reported that the head of the business unit, Daniel Matuszewski, had resigned from the company with five others leaving before him: Chris Hermida, Beatrice O'Carroll, Paul Martin, Ryan Salame and YinFeng Shao.

Then October came, and Circle made news for selling Poloniex to an unnamed Asian investment firm -- barely two years that Circle had been the exchange's parent firm. And fast forward to December, the co-CEO departure and the latest round of layoffs came. No reports indicate that this would be the last of Circle's job cuts, but it seems that their focus reverts to their stable coin USDC.