Consensys Lays Off 20% of Staff Citing Economic Challenges

Consensys, the software company behind the popular crypto wallet MetaMask, is restructuring to ensure long-term sustainability amid a challenging economic climate. The company is laying off 20% of its workforce.

According to a letter from CEO Joe Jubin, the move comes in response to macroeconomic challenges, including increased interest rates, inflation, and tighter liquidity conditions, which have collectively impacted the tech industry. Regulatory uncertainty has also prompted Consensys to streamline its operations to navigate more efficiently through an increasingly complex legal environment.

"Multiple cases with the SEC, including ours, represent meaningful jobs and productive investment lost due to the SEC's abuse of power and Congress's inability to rectify the problem," Lubin wrote.

Going forward, the company plans to concentrate on its core revenue-generating products and services, aiming to refocus its resources toward scalability and efficiency improvements.

The company also wants to achieve greater decentralization. Consensys envisions eventually evolving its platforms, like MetaMask, towards protocol-based governance models.

The firm has also hinted at Linea’s progress with zkEVM technology and said more details would be forthcoming at the Devcon conference in November.

Consensys isn’t the only major crypto firm to reduce its headcount recently. Last month, Matter Labs, the company developing ZKSync, cut 16% of its workforce.