Bitcoin is growing rapidly and the cryptocurrency industry is making a comeback, but there have been recent layoffs.
The latest company to make such a move is American Bitcoin miner Foundry. Foundry, based in Rochester, New York, confirmed it has cut 16% of its workforce. The company is one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the United States.
In a statement to Decrypt, the company said, “We have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce at Foundry, resulting in layoffs across multiple teams.” The company also cut its small team in India, it added.
Blockspace first reported the layoffs, but Foundry said fewer positions were affected than it initially claimed.
“We recently made the strategic decision to focus Foundry on our core business of operating the world's number one Bitcoin mining pool and growing our site operations business, while also focusing on Yuma and Foundry. We supported the development of DCG's newest subsidiary, including the spin-out of the “self-mining business'', it said in a statement.
Yuma is an artificial intelligence (AI) platform and a subsidiary of Foundry. Digital Currency Group (DCG), which owns the foundry, said in a letter to shareholders after the US election that its mining operations work best as a “stand-alone operation.” Foundry also offers staking services for other digital assets such as Ethereum.
Despite soaring crypto prices, major companies around the world have cut jobs this year, including Ethereum giant ConsenSys, top digital asset exchange Kraken, and New York platform dYdX. Experts told Decrypt before the election that regulatory uncertainty is contributing to companies becoming slimmer.
Bitcoin mining is a particularly difficult industry. Rewards for miners are reduced every four years, increasing the cost of doing business for companies.
Bitcoin mining is a process that uses powerful computers to verify transactions on the largest cryptographic network.
Over 14 years ago, it was possible to perform this process on your home PC. But as the network grew, so did the industry and competition. Today, miners typically perform large-scale operations using server farms and large amounts of electricity.
Miners receive newly minted Bitcoins as compensation for their work, but as the years go by, the coin production process becomes more difficult and consumes even more energy.
However, JPMorgan said its Bitcoin mining revenue increased in November amid a surge in BTC prices that approached the $100,000 level for the first time late last month.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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