Prominent cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex laid off employees Wednesday.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based company slashed 83 positions, according to a Washington state filing.
“Unfortunately, due to market conditions, Bittrex was forced to lay off over 80 employees today, who reside in various locations across the country,” the company said in a statement to GeekWire.
The company has nearly 300 employees, according to LinkedIn.
Founded in 2014 by three cybersecurity engineers, Bittrex helps people buy and sell crypto. The company was hit with about $29 million in fines by the U.S. Treasury Department in October. It allegedly allowed people from sanctioned jurisdictions to use its platform and did not meet anti-money laundering requirements.
The broader crypto industry has been in turmoil following the swift collapse of digital-asset exchange FTX that cast a dark shadow over crypto’s aspirations to upend traditional currency. Prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins have fallen steeply over the past year.
Coinbase, a leading U.S. exchange, laid off 20% of its workforce last month, its second round of layoffs in less than a year. Many other tech companies are slashing headcount in a bid to lower expenses amid economic uncertainty.
Bittrex is led by co-founder and CEO Richie Lai, a former senior security manager at Amazon. He co-founded Bittrex with Bill Shihara and Rami Kawach, also former security leaders at Amazon.
