Kraken Job Cuts 15% Layoff Restructures Future for 400 Employees

Key Points:

• Kraken job cuts 400 jobs to streamline operations and boost agility.
• Silicon Valley veteran Arjun Sethi joins as co-CEO to drive Kraken’s growth alongside Dave Ripley.

Kraken job cut announced Wednesday it’s laying off 15% of its workforce, 400 jobs total, part of a corporate restructuring that also includes a shake-up in leadership, naming Arjun Sethi as co-chief executive alongside Dave Ripley, who, in 2023, succeeded founder Jesse Powell.

Kraken Job Cuts 15% Amid Restructuring Efforts

The layoffs include notable exits from the leadership team, specifically Chief Operating Officer Gilles BianRosa and Chief Technology Officer Vishnu Patankar. The newly minted co-CEOs of Kraken reasoned that streamlining operations would result in an organization that was more nimble and competitive toward their stated goal of becoming the world’s largest crypto platform. “We are making organizational discipline decisions to tackle this problem and eliminate layers,” the executives said in a company blog post.

Read more: Kraken Layer 2 Blockchain Coming Soon With Base-Like Technology

Kraken’s History of Challenges and Layoffs

Kraken has had a streak of misfortunes. Its 2022 involved divisive internal policies by Powell fueling a culture war inside the company, with a federal investigation for possible breaches of sanctions; he stepped down later that year. Later, in 2022, Kraken job cut 30% of its staff after crypto exchange FTX collapsed and precipitated an industry decline. The cuts announced today represent the company’s second major round of layoffs in less than two years.

While the cryptocurrency market has partly rebounded, and Bitcoin reached new highs this year, companies like Kraken are still choosing the leaner route. Kraken brought in more than $1 billion in net revenue; however, the co-CEOs decided that simplified management would help employees “focus on building rather than managing.