Online broker Robinhood will cut its headcount by around 23% due to the worsening macroeconomic environment and negative developments in the cryptocurrency market. This is stated in a letter from the company’s CEO, Vlad Tenev.

“[…] In these new conditions, we are working with more personnel than necessary. As CEO, I affirmed and took responsibility for our ambitious talent trajectory,” said Robinhood president.

According to him, the layoffs will affect employees in all departments. According to the Financial Times, about 780 people will be unemployed.

Tenev also announced that it has made adjustments to the online broker’s organizational structure. The changes are to “soften the hierarchy” and remove “unnecessary roles and titles”.

“To leave […] They will be given the opportunity to work at Robinhood and receive their regular salary and benefits until October 1, 2022.

The company’s CEO promised the laid-off employees severance pay, payment of insurance premiums, and assistance in finding a new job.

On August 2, Robinhood released its second-quarter financial report, which showed monthly user numbers dropped by 1.9 million to 14 million. Operating expenses fell 12% to $610 million.

The firm’s net income was $318 million, up 6% from the first quarter. However, compared to April-June 2021, the indicator has dropped 44%. The loss per share was $0.34.

“While the decision to further reduce staffing was difficult, we believe it is correct and allows us to fulfill our mission of democratizing finance,” Tenev said.

Shares of the online broker closed the trading session up 2.1% at $9.23 on August 2. It dropped to $9.17 in post-market quotes.

Robinhood laid off 9% of its employees in April after its stock plunged 75% after going public.

Against the background of the crisis, many representatives of the cryptocurrency industry announced the optimization. In particular, BitMEX, Bitso, Mercado Bitcoin, Coinbase, BlockFi and Crypto.com have taken this step.

In July, the media learned of the second wave of outages on the Gemini bitcoin exchange. The decision to lay off staff was taken by Bitpanda, mining company Compass Mining, and the OpenSea NFT marketplace.

Recall that in August, the New York State Department of Financial Services fined Robinhood’s cryptocurrency division $30 million for violations of AML regulations and cybersecurity policies.

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