Table of Contents:

· Ava Labs cuts 12% of its workforce, with the marketing department being hit the hardest

· Founder says team resources will be redirected to ecological development

· 7 cryptocurrency companies announced layoffs in the past month, with the largest scale reaching 50%

Ava Labs lays off 12%, marketing department hit hard

November 7th, according to Decrypt, Ava Labs conducted a large-scale layoff on Monday, affecting multiple teams including communications and marketing. It is currently unclear whether the layoffs on Monday affected the company's technical team, but according to all accounts, the layoffs have been widespread, to the point where many employees were surprised in the current harsh cryptocurrency bear market.

Game growth marketer @TradingAloha at Ava Labs confirmed on social media that layoffs or team restructuring may be happening, while also sending out a job signal. According to a post made on November 4th, it seems that news of the layoffs may have already been hinted at last weekend: "I slept for two hours last night, received some surprising phone calls, and then received some really disappointing news. This is not the way I wanted to end the week."

Ava Labs' Vice President of Growth, Garrison Yang (@0xHushky), is actively posting on social media to recommend this group of laid-off employees to the wider crypto community: "For many in this all-star marketing team, today is their last day at AvaLabs. If your project or company is looking for top talent in the crypto space, let me know. These people built Avalanche from scratch in less than a year and helped us navigate this bear market."

According to BlockBeats observation, the marketing department, including members such as @TradingAloha and @BrandonSuzuki_, was the most affected by the recent layoffs at Ava Labs. The department may face restructuring, and the laid-off employees refused to answer the reason for the layoffs. Other departments have not been widely affected for the time being.

Founder says team resources will be transferred to ecological development field

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) posted more information, stating: "We are no longer a 12-person startup, but we strive to capture the speed and vitality of a small, agile team. The reduction in personnel affected 12% of Ava Labs' workforce, allowing us to reallocate resources to double down on the development of our company and the Avalanche ecosystem." "We will be focusing these resources on advancing the Avalanche ecosystem in the coming years."

Assisting the development of the Avalanche ecosystem has become a key phrase for the future development of Ava Labs. Previously, BlockBeats reported on October 19th that Devika Mittal and Kamakshi Arjun have joined Ava Labs as India Director and India Business Development Director, respectively. They were previously the former listing director of OKX and the former India partner director of Polygon Labs. Joining Ava Labs is to help increase the adoption of Avalanche in India.

Related reading: "Avalanche targets India's crypto "red sea market" after partnering with Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud"

Due to the continuous shadow of US regulatory policies, several crypto companies including Avalanche, Coinbase, and Immutable have chosen to expand their executive teams and explore crypto markets outside of the US this year.

Other than developing the Indian market, according to observations by BlockBeats, Avalanche has been active recently, possibly related to building its ecosystem.

Previously, Patrick O'Grady, the engineering director of Ava Labs, announced two versions of Avalanche Cortina within a month. On October 11th, Avalanche Cortina 12 was released, and on October 27th, Avalanche Cortina 14 was released. The announcement was reported here.

October 30th, Avalanche announced on the X platform that the current version of Avalanche blockchain explorer Snowtrace on Etherscan will be replaced by a new version operated by Avascan, and Snowtrace will be discontinued at 8:00 on November 30th Beijing time.

In addition, the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero also announced the launch of the wrapped stETH (wstETH) function in the transfer liquidity staking protocol Lido Finance on blockchains such as Avalanche.

Meanwhile, Avalanche is also cutting ties with some projects in the cryptocurrency industry. On October 31st, Avalanche's Lanuchpad platform, Avalaunch, announced that it has decided to terminate its partnership with Stars Arena after careful consideration of recent events.

"In the early stages of the launch of Stars Arena, considering the active data that this project brought to Avalanche, Avalaunch contacted the Stars Arena team to explore how to provide assistance. However, unfortunately, too many uncomfortable or incomprehensible things have happened around this project recently."

Combining with the recent activity of Avalanche in technology and cooperation, it can be seen that Ava Labs is readjusting its internal personnel structure in order to better cooperate with the ecological construction of Avalanche.

Seven Cryptocurrency Companies Announced Layoffs in the Past Month, with the Largest Scale Reaching 50%

According to BlockBeats observation, in the past month, 7 companies in the cryptocurrency industry, including Ava Labs, have announced layoffs. Among them, the NFT market OpenSea and the cryptocurrency custody infrastructure provider Qredo have the largest layoffs, reaching 50%.

On October 6th, according to The Block, Ledger, a manufacturer of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, laid off 12% of its workforce. Pascal Gauthier, the CEO of the company, stated in a letter to employees, "We must continue to make decisions for the long-term development of the company. The macroeconomic headwinds have limited our ability to generate revenue, and in response to the current market conditions and business reality, we must reduce our workforce by 12%."

October 10th, according to CoinDesk, Matt Cutler, CEO of Ethereum infrastructure service provider Blocknative, said that the company has recently undergone restructuring, with more than 33% of employees being laid off, affecting more than a dozen employees. Blocknative currently has 24 employees remaining.

October 13th, according to CoinDesk, blockchain security audit company CertiK conducted a "strategic workforce adjustment" and laid off 15% of its employees. CertiK co-founder and CEO Ronghui Gu said, "Our main goal is to restructure our team to better align with our long-term strategic vision. CertiK remains committed to our mission and believes these changes are necessary steps to achieve our goals."

On October 24th, according to Bloomberg, Parity Technologies, the Polkadot ecosystem development organization, plans to lay off 30%, or about 100 employees. Parity CEO Björn Wagner stated that this decision will affect various teams including marketing, as Parity shifts its focus towards supporting Polkadot technology.

November 2nd, according to four sources cited by The Block, Qredo, a cryptocurrency custody infrastructure provider, has once again laid off 50% of its staff, and its financial situation can sustain for about six months. Qredo had previously laid off about 50 people in September this year. The company currently has about 50 employees, down from over 200 at the beginning of the year.

November 4th, according to Decrypt, OpenSea has confirmed the dismissal of about 50% of its employees. An OpenSea spokesperson stated that the company is undergoing significant organizational and operational changes, focusing on building a more flexible and better version. In response, OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer said, "We are repositioning the team around 'OpenSea 2.0', which is a major upgrade to our product, including fundamental technology, reliability, speed, quality, and experience."

Related reading: "Will Qredo fall before spring arrives as the crypto infrastructure faces layoffs?"

During this bear market cycle with an uncertain future, Qredo is not the only one to choose layoffs. In October alone, four infrastructure projects have resorted to layoffs to preserve the spark and survive this winter.

What can be determined is that although different companies have different reasons for choosing layoffs, many companies in the encryption industry will embrace the future in a brand new way before the next cycle arrives.

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