2022 was the year of layoffs. Despite the latest market recovery, job cuts did not take a back seat. A whopping 2,900 employees were let go from the cryptoverse in January 2023. Goldman Sachs, however, was turning over a new leaf.
According to recent reports, Goldman Sachs’ crypto unit was looking to hire more members. The team now has 70 members, despite the fact that it began with only four employees.
The latest move focuses on the bank’s efforts to show that it is still “hugely supportive” of its stance on blockchain applications. Therefore, the digital asset unit of the firm will recruit “as appropriate” in 2023. Mathew McDermott, the global head of digital assets at the bank, made these declarations. Despite the market downturn, back in December, McDermott even highlighted the possibility of purchasing crypto firms that were “priced more sensibly.”
All of this came as a huge shock to the community as Goldman Sachs let go of 3,200 employees in January. Additionally, since 2008–2009, this has been regarded as the largest round of layoffs. Goldman Sachs’ crypto vision seems to be on track, and the latest news was bullish for the overall market.
Crypto layoffs took a backseat in February
Although February wasn’t a particularly good month for the market, it ended up being better than January for a number of reasons. 2,850 people working in the crypto industry were laid off in January. In February, this dropped to a meager 570.
The majority of the job losses occurred at crypto analytics firms Elliptic, Messari, and Chainlysis. The Polygon network also let go of 100 employees. Coinbase, Huobi, and other major exchanges have decided to take a step back. This could have caused a dip in the overall number.
In all, 24,572 people were let go across 129 IT organizations in February, down from 84,414 across 268 tech companies in January, according to data from the layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi.