While the world of tech is facing hardship like never before, the situation of crypto companies is not great either. The ongoing crypto winter seems to be intensifying with several crypto companies gearing up to cut staff this week. 

These crypto companies are planning to keep “impactful” workers to get ready for a “longer downturn,” as reported by Cointelegraph. The same report also revealed that between three cryptocurrency companies, Protocol Labs, a developer of open-source software, Chainalysis, and Bittrex, there have been at least 216 job cuts. 

This led to a reduction in the workforce by 89, 83, and 44 employees, respectively. The layoffs were announced by Juan Benet, CEO of Protocol Labs, the organisation that created Filecoin, in a blog post on February 3.

Benet claimed that the company had to focus its headcount “against the most impactful and business-critical efforts.” And hence, the company decided to eliminate “89 roles,” or about 21% of its workforce. 

Given that the crypto industry has faced “extremely challenging times,” the CEO of Protocol Labs suggested the companies “prepare for a longer downturn.”