Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Slashes 15% Staff

The company made a loss of $68 million in Q3 2019.

Galaxy Digital, a digital currency merchant bank established by Michael Novogratz, has cut its staff by 13 – around 15 percent of its total workforce.

Reported by Coindesk on Thursday, the layoffs happened in January across the board. However, the company kept all its business divisions including asset management, trading, principal investments, and advisory services intact.

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Per one of the anonymous sources of the publication, who is also a former employee at the New York-based company, the company hired more staff expecting a growth in the digital asset market, however, the pace of the pivot from the two-year-long “crypto winter” is not as expected by the merchant bank.

Notably, the cryptocurrency market is currently on a bull run as Bitcoin added nearly 40 percent to its value this year, gaining more than half its peak value. As of press time, the digital currency is trading around $10,200 after sliding from $10,450.

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Another source of Coindesk described cuts as “standard year-end” activity at the company.

Recruitment under process

Despite the reduction in staff, the company is hiring talents in multiple positions, however, they are being done relying on inbound inquiries, recruiters and networking for prospects, the report outlined.

Similar to Galaxy Digital, ConsenSys, a blockchain startup developing Ethereum-based solutions, also shed 14 percent of its staff following a major restructuring in the company. The company also shut operations of its offices in India and the Philippines, sacking all the employees.

Though Galaxy primarily focuses on the trading of digital assets it also holds significant stakes in blockchain startups including Ripple, BlockFi, Ciphertrace and several others.

Last year, Galaxy Digital raised $250 million for its to expand operations through a credit fund focused on lending crypto firms. Despite this, the figures reported by the company for the third quarter of 2019 showed a net loss of $68 million.