NYDIG Lays Off a Third of its Staff: Report

Crypto investment management and trading firm NYDIG has laid off more than a third of its staff, despite having raised hundreds of millions of dollars for its bitcoin fund earlier this month.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, around 110 staff were let go late last month as the company seeks cost-cutting measures amid the crypto downturn. According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, NYDIG’s staff numbers are estimated to be around 286.

Blockworks attempted to contact the trading firm, but did not receive a response by press time.

Despite replacing its CEO Robert Gutmann and President Yan Zhao earlier in October, NYDIG said its bitcoin balances had hit an all-time high during the third quarter. 

Though it appears that record balance has had little impact on the firm’s decision to reduce employee numbers. The company had been on solid ground in late 2021 when it closed a $1 billion funding round with a valuation of $7 billion.

Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad are the latest to take on NYDIG’s CEO and president roles, respectively. Both Gutmann and Zhao will continue to work at the firm’s $12 billion parent company, Stone Ridge Holdings, which they co-founded with Ross Stevens in 2012. 

NYDIG also raised $720 million for its Institutional Bitcoin Fund on Oct. 4 with contributions coming from 59 investors.

Crypto markets remain on shaky ground following the fallout of the lending crisis earlier this year. That event, triggered by the fall of Terra’s ecosystem, has all but wiped billions of dollars from the market, which has been repeatedly testing the highs of the 2017 bull market cycle.

NYDIG, like others, is attempting to navigate rough seas as retail and institutional investors take a risk-off approach to otherwise seemingly risky digital assets.

Bellwether crypto bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from $69,000 seen in November last year to just under $20,000.

Established in 2016, NYDIG was later spun off into a separate entity in 2017. Its main mission has been to “make Bitcoin accessible to all” by providing technology and financial services solutions to banks, FinTech companies, investment managers, and institutions, among others.

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