The falling price of bitcoin forces startups to downsize

The downward spiral of 2018, which has left bitcoin at a mere $3,700, is finally forcing industry startups to reconcile themselves to circumstance and cut back by all means necessary. Many of the rising stars of the cryptocurrency market had experienced sizable growth over the last couple of years, driven by the steady increase in bitcoin’s price—that is, until the crash, which led the cryptocurrency to lose 70% of its value.

Now, it’s time to pay the price, and layoffs are imminent. As we've reported before, Beijing-based crypto trading platform Huobi Group is preparing to lay off a portion of their 1,000-person staff. Downsizing is also in the works at Bitmain—the bitcoin mining hardware provider has already shut down their Israeli development center, and is currently in the process of re-evaluating their staff on a global scale. Similar shake-ups can also be observed in the States—NYC-based decentralized social media platform Steemit has recently laid off 70% of its employees.

While the crypto market won’t get to end 2018 on a high note, one thing’s for certain—if the price of Bitcoin keeps sinking further, the industry’s players will need to come up with a different strategy to stay afloat.