Robinhood will lay off nearly a quarter of its employees, due to the continued deterioration of the macro environment and a broad crypto market crash.
The news came in via a blog post from co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, on the same day the firm released Q2 financial results and the New York State Department of Financial Services announced a $30 million fine for the company’s crypto branch due to alleged Anti-Money Laundering, cybersecurity and consumer protection violations.
Tenev wrote that the layoffs would impact all functions in the company, particularly operations, marketing, and program management, with around 23% of the staff let go.
Robinhood laid off 9% of its staff earlier this year, but Tenev said the cuts did not go far enough. He pointed to economic conditions and the collapse of the crypto market as factors in the move. In addition, the company had wrongly assumed the heightened engagement seen during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic would continue.
Robinhood enjoyed a significant spike in share price in May after FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried paid $650 million for a 7.6% stake in the company. Share prices fell more than 4% Tuesday in after-hours trading, according to the Financial Time.
