Bitcoin trading platform Bitpanda lays off 250 employees

NEW DELHI: Global Bitcoin trading platform Bitpanda has laid off 250 employees amid the crypto winter as digital coins crash.

Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel-backed Bitpanda announced that it would be reducing its headcount from nearly 1,000 employees to 730.

The company, valued at $4.1 billion during their last fund raise in August last year, has also rescinded offers they made recently.

"The implications hurt: We need to let part of our team go and scale down to a target organisational size of about 730 people," the company said in a blog post late on Friday.

"We made this difficult decision to ensure that we are robustly well-capitalised to navigate the storm and get out of it financially healthy, no matter how long it takes for markets to recover," the company added.

Austria-based Bitpanda offers millions of retail investors the opportunity to invest in Europe's broadest range of digital assets.

"Over the past few months, the market sentiment has dramatically changed, fuelled by geopolitical tensions, rising inflation and concerns about the imminence of a recession," said the company.

"There's lots of uncertainty in the financial markets right now and, while we do know that the industry is cyclical, nobody knows when the market sentiment will change," it added.

The company said it will support those who were laid off, "by offering packages that go beyond the employment law requirements in your market".

Bitpanda joins a growing list of crypto platforms like Crypto.com, Bitso, Buenbit, BlockFi, and Coinbase, who have announced layoffs in the wake of the recent economic downturn.