Peter Thiel-Backed Bitpanda Fires 730 Employees

Vienna-based cryptocurrency exchange has fired 730 employees due to unfavorable market conditions, according a Friday announcement.

The trading platform, which is backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, says that the “difficult decision” was taken so that the company would remain “financial healthy.”

Last August, Bitpanda reached a valuation of more than $4 billion after raising $260 million during its Series C funding round. The funding allowed the company to expand its headcount.

Bitpanda isn’t the only cryptocurrency company that has announced massive layoffs over the past few weeks. As reported by U.Today, Coinbase, the top U.S. crypto exchange, axed 18% of its staff in a shocking move. BlockFi, Gemini, Bitso are also among the prominent crypto companies who recently went on a firing spree.

In the meantime, FTX, Ripple, OpenSea and some other crypto companies have bucked the trend by actually expanding their staff.