Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is bucking the trend in the cryptocurrency industry by announcing plans to increase its workforce by 15-25% in 2023. This comes as a significant number of firms in the sector are laying off staff to cut costs and weather financial difficulties. The company’s decision to hire more people is a bold move, especially given the challenges the crypto industry is facing.
The crypto sector has experienced a significant number of layoffs recently, accounting for 41% of all layoffs in 2023.
As the digital currency industry remains destabilized from recent disasters such as FTX’s fall and TerraUSD’s breakdown combined with market volatility, multiple organizations had no choice but to let go of employees in order to save money.
In the first two months of 2023, major crypto firms like Coinbase, Gemini, and Polygon —amongst other prominent crypto companies—have all had to make drastic layoffs due to losses incurred by an extended bear market.
The cryptocurrency industry is not the only sector experiencing layoffs. In January of 2023, just four companies – Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce – let go of 48,000 employees.
This underscores a larger trend of job losses across the tech sector, as companies grapple with the challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and supply chain disruptions.
Circle’s decision to increase its headcount comes just months after it called off plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The deal with Concord Acquisition was announced in July 2021 and was initially valued at $4.5 billion. However, the valuation ballooned to $9 billion by February 2022, when the deal was amended.
The deal was terminated in December 2022, with the company citing market conditions as the reason.
However, Circle’s CFO, Jeremy Fox-Geen, has said that the company still intends to go public but is waiting for better market conditions.
As of the end of 2022, Circle had around 900 employees and plans to add 135-225 more in 2023. While this represents slower growth than in 2022, when the headcount more than doubled from the previous year, it is still a significant increase.
Nonetheless, Circle’s decision to expand its workforce indicates that the company remains bullish on the future of stablecoins and the broader crypto ecosystem, and sees opportunities for growth despite the current headwinds.
The stablecoin issuer’s USDC is currently the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether’s USDT, with a market cap of $42 billion.
In April of 2022, the company hit a total funding of $1.1 billion after a $400 million round from investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Research, Marshall Wace, and Fin Capital, according to Crunchbase.
