Viennese start-up Bitpanda is laying off more than a quarter of its workforce, reducing the number of employees from more than 1,000 to 730. In an open letter, the cryptocurrency exchange blamed the crisis in the crypto industry as the cause.
It was only recently that the fledgling company was looking for new staff – and advertised “unlimited vacation”. Now not only workers are being laid off in Vienna, but also in a total of more than ten locations in the EU: the three founders Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian said that at the moment no one can say when the crypto market will recover and Bitpanda will start again debris to improve with. A reorganization is therefore being sought.
In the message to the workforce, the three also admitted to making mistakes, saying they had grown too fast. The aim is to help people affected by the layoffs find a new job. There should also be free psychological help, as announced. In short, the founders were in a positive mood that business would pick up again.
Bitpanda – according to its own statements there are 3.5 million users worldwide who trade stocks and precious metals on the platform in addition to cryptocurrencies – was Austria’s first so-called unicorn. These are start-ups worth more than a billion dollars. Several young Austrian companies had recently reached this threshold.
The startup investor i5invest has six of these unicorns in Austria. The most famous of these is the tutoring app GoStudent, next to Bitpanda.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
