Crypto Exchange Swyftx Cuts 21% Of Its Workforce Amid Bear Market

The crypto exchange Swyftx sacked 21% of its workers, with one employee learning of her dismissal while on her honeymoon in Hawaii.

In June, Swyftx announced a $1.5 billion merger with the online share trading platform Superhero and notified employees on Wednesday that 74 positions would be eliminated.

Alex Harper and Ryan Parsons, co-chief executives of Swyftx, stated they were very distressed by the company’s staff cutdown.

“As you’re all aware, we are operating in an uncertain business environment, with levels of domestic inflation not seen in over two decades, rising interest rates, highly volatile markets across all asset classes, and the potential for a global recession,” they told staff.

“We started growing our team in a very different world, and it’s now prudent to make sure our cost base is compatible with this extended period of economic uncertainty.”

" alt="" />Swyftx founders Alex Harper and Angus Goldman. Picture: Supplied.

Among the 74 affected positions were customer support, marketing, engineering, and other basic fintech functions.

A lot of Swyftx employees shared the “sad” news on LinkedIn. One employee, a sales manager, said that she celebrated her first anniversary with the firm last week, only to learn that she had been laid off in Hawaii while on her honeymoon.

Another employee stated that her job loss occurred at an exciting moment.

“I’m getting married on Saturday, followed by a honeymoon. I’m going to take this time to decompress and think about what’s next,” the sponsorship manager wrote on LinkedIn.

‘Feeling disappointed’

Another colleague remarked that it had been quite a journey and that quitting had been everything but simple.

“It’s the first time I’m going through redundancy,” the engineer said.

“A mix of emotions is going through my mind at the moment that is hard to put into words – feeling disappointed, reflective, open-minded and adventurous – all at the same time.”

Surprisingly, the firm has also been recruiting on LinkedIn for positions such as finance manager, cloud engineering manager, and implementation specialist during the past week.

The layoffs are a significant blow to the firm, which was formed in 2018 and expanded to employ more than 250 employees. They come after the company sponsored this year’s State of Origin as part of a three-year deal with the NRL as its official cryptocurrency exchange partner.

Tech bloodbath

Swyftx employees are the most recent victims of the beleaguered IT and crypto industries, which have recently seen painful layoffs.

Bitcoin’s price volatility shows a bearish trend. Source: TradingView

Megaport, a telecommunications and IT infrastructure firm located in Brisbane, has disclosed that a stunning $1.6 million was spent on severance packages for the 10% of employees laid off.

This month, the Australian social networking startup Linktree, recently valued at $1.78 billion, disclosed that it had laid off 17% of its global workforce.

Immutable, another crypto platform valued at $3.5 billion, suffered a heated reaction earlier this month after laying off 17% of its games division personnel despite continuing to “recruit quickly” after collecting $280 million in March.

The Australian healthcare startup Eucalyptus, which provides treatments for obesity, acne, and erectile dysfunction, was forced to lay off up to 20% of its workforce when an investment firm withdrew its funding at the last minute.

Despite having a valuation of more than $200 million, Indebted let off 40 people just before the end of the fiscal year, with most of the layoffs occurring in the sales and marketing departments.

Brighte let off 15% of its employees in June, mainly in corporate and new product development positions.

BizPay, a Sydney-based supplier of purchase now, pay later services, laid off 30% of its personnel in May, citing market constraints as the reason for the drastic reduction.

Earlier this year, 5B Solar, a solar-focused startup backed by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, sacked 25% of its workforce after completing a capital raising that would pump $30 million into the firm.