Nov 1, 2024

The blockchain software firm best known for its self-custodial MetaMask wallet credited regulatory uncertainty and a push toward “rigorous decentralization.” Published Oct. 30, 2024 In this photo illustration a visual representation of the digital currency Bitcoin sinks into water on August 15, 2018 in London. Dan Kitwood via Getty Images Blockchain software company Consensys is laying off 20% of its employees, chalking it up to challenging macroeconomic conditions and ongoing regulatory uncertainty. The layoffs, announced in a blog post by CEO Joseph Lubin, affect around 162 of Consensys’ 828 employees, according to Cointelegraph . On top of rising interest rates and inflationary pressures, the lack of clear regulatory frameworks “has made navigating our evolving space unnecessarily complex for innovators, builders, investors, and businesses,” Lubin wrote, noting the number of ongoing battles between crypto firms and the Securities and Exchange Commission, including his own. “This is all unfolding within a web3 ecosystem that is evolving rapidly. Our sector is about to go mainstream with web3-native companies making great strides and more traditional companies leaning into web3,” he wrote. “Looking ahead, I see a next generation economy not dominated by large monolithic companies; instead, smaller, agile, AI-supercharged companies with web3-based coordination tools will operate more efficiently.” “To stay competitive in this fast-growing space, we need to reshape ourselves and be more agile, more effective, and even higher-performing,” he wrote. Lubin said layoffs are required for the sustainability of the firm best known for its self-custodial MetaMask crypto wallet. Affected employees will receive severance based on tenure and job placement support, along with extended healthcare benefits and an extension of the stock option exercise window from 12 months to 36 months, “recognizing the value these team members have contributed.” Consensys’ core business, Lubin said, remains strong, and the decision to “right-size” the company was “hard,” he wrote. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Lubin said the layoffs are motivated “by a variety of factors, and to me, it feels like they’re pretty equal. The first obvious one, which is not necessarily more important than the others, is just the long-term financial sustainability aspects in the face of potential economic volatility.” Consensys seeks to become a “smaller, much more agile organization,” one better equipped to capitalize on “broad and deep capabilities” the firm has built over its 10-year lifespan, he told the outlet. More specifically, the company seeks to evolve from “a company into a network state overtime,” he wrote in the blog post, driving “progressively toward rigorous decentralization.” Without details, Lubin wrote that the company will make several announcements in the near future to demonstrate its commitment to decentralization.