Chainalysis Dismisses 20% of Its Employees

November 22, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Chainalysis, specializing in the analysis and monitoring of blockchains, dismisses 39 employees to optimize business processes and implement new strategies for bringing products to the market.

According to Maddie Kennedy, Chainalysis Director of Public Relations, the cuts affected almost all departments of the company. Most of the layoffs were in the research unit. The total number of employees of the organization is now 155 people, thus 20% of the staff were laid off.

Reducing will help put Chainalysis on the “path to profitability,” Kennedy said, allowing the company to reallocate resources to product development teams and implement market launch strategies.

Despite the cuts, the company is doing well. In April it closed a Series B funding round with $36 million from backers including Accel and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest bank and added support for four new cryptocurrencies to its AML tool. In addition, in August Chainalysis launched a suspicious transaction warning system, and in September it became known that Bittrex was using Chainalysis KYT to track transactions.

According to the firm’s own data, Chainalysis products are used by the governments of 20 countries and more than 140 companies, from cryptocurrency exchanges to traditional banks. But market conditions forced measures to optimize costs. Dismissals were a preventive measure designed to prevent the unexpected, including the possibility of an economic downturn.

“We think that acting now is best for the long-term health of the business,” Kennedy said.

Over the past year, staff reductions have affected many cryptocurrency companies. So Coinbase, Sirin Labs, Unocoin, Coinsquare and Huobi were forced to lay off some employees to optimize business processes.

Author: Marko Vidrih