In recent times, most of the journalistic institutions have spent their time bearing bad news about global economy and job security. 2TM Participacoes SA, parent company to the largest Brazillian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin SA, has parted ways with 90 employees, which makes around 10% of its staff.
The number comes from sources close to the situation, and has not been officially revealed by 2TM themselves. In a statement, the company cited macroeconomic climate as the reason for these layoffs. The blame, was on usual suspects, rising interest rates, inflation and global financial conditions. “The changing global financial landscape, rising interest rates and inflation have been having a major impact on technology-based companies,” 2TM said in the statement. The company further added, “the scenario required adjustments that go beyond reducing operational expenses, making it necessary also to lay off part of our employees.” The news was first broken by Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
2TM had raised $50 Million in November last year from investors like Tribe capital and 10T Holdings. It was also in talks with Coinbase to reach a deal, which could have been on the scale of minority stake or even a controlling acquisition.
With this, 2TM becomes the second Softbank-backed cryptocurrency venture to have staff layoffs. SoftBank have had mukto struggles of their own as the vision fund bets have not panned out according to plan.
Interestingly, just last week, Mercado’s chief competitor in Brazil, Bitso, also laid off 80 employees (out of 700 total) citing “long-term business strategy” as reason. US based Coinbase, also facing tangential struggles, announced a hiring freeze on Thursday. Argentina-based Buenbit was also on the layoff block, cutting off 45% of its total workforce due to the “global overhaul” of tech industry.
