Digital currency exchange Luno to cut 35% of its workforce

Luno, a digital currency exchange owned by Digital Currency Group, announced a large round of job cuts on Wednesday.

CEO Marcus Swanepoel said that the layoffs will affect 35% of Luno's total headcount. Swanepoel described the year as an incredibly tough one for the tech industry and particularly the criptocurrency market. Over the past year, some popular cryptocurrencies have seen their prices fall sharply. In the past 12 months, the price of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 39%, while the prices of ether and Solana have dropped 37% and 74%.

Swanepoel said that Turbulence has a significant impact on Luno's growth and revenue numbers, leading to layoffs and other measures.

He pointed out a series of unforeseen and very extreme events, including a global economic downturn, an even bigger downturn in the tech sector as well as recent events in the industry that have harmed it. The recent collapse of the exchange FTX was one of the shocks.

Since filing to do so a couple of months ago, FTX has been involved in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. In connection with the firm's collapse, founder and former CEO Sam Bankman- Fried has been hit with a slew of criminal charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.

In a number of ways, such events have impacted our capital side in a number of ways, with the market focus shifting from long term investment to shorter term profitability, and on the operating side, a negative impact on market sentiment, and consequently on growth and revenue for our business, along with all of our peers and competitors, Swanepoel told employees.

Luno's customers and operations have not been impacted, according to the CEO.

Other companies in the industry have recently made announcements about reducing their workforce following a bumpy year forcryptocurrencies.

In mid-January, the company announced plans to slash 20% of its employees. The company said 20% of its workers would be laid off earlier in the month.