Kraken reduces workforce by 30% and leaves 1,100 people at home

Kraken announced that it has decided to reduce its global workforce by 30% due to the long crypto winter. With 1,100 fewer people on its team, the crypto-exchange is now back to its size of a year ago. 

Kraken leaves 1,100 people at home by reducing its global workforce by 30%

Crypto-exchange Kraken announced in a blog post that it has made the decision to reduce its global workforce by 30%, leaving 1,100 people on its team at home. 

The cause is very simple: the “long crypto winter” that has stained the entire cryptocurrency market red since the beginning of 2022 with the diverse ramifications of crypto exchanges and platforms collapsing. Moreover, Kraken also attributes this decision to the macroeconomic and geopolitical factors of 2022 (such as the still ongoing Ukraine-Russia war) which have had a significant impact on the financial markets. 

During the year, Kraken explains that reduced trading volumes and declining customer enrollments led the crypto-exchange to act cautiously, slowing hiring and avoiding large marketing commitments.

However, this has not been enough, and the current decision to leave 1,100 people at home will allow the crypto-exchange to downsize, returning its team to precisely the size it was a year ago. 

Kraken provides support with bonuses and salaries for people laid off

A genuine act of the crypto-exchange is to want to take care of the 1,100 people laid off, assisting them with special bonuses and salaries. 

Indeed, Kraken has decided to offer them 16 weeks’ basic pay, including paid leave, as well as a performance bonus for those who are eligible, determined by their manager. 

Not only that, the 1,100 people will enjoy an additional 4 months of health coverage including the paid leave period and dedicated visa and immigration support for those currently on company-sponsored visas.

Under a job re-entry perspective, Kraken will offer career support such as networking opportunities, job search best practices, interview guidance, and more to its terminated employees. 

In this regard, Jesse Powell, co-founder and CEO of Kraken, said:

“Our mission to empower people with new ways to connect and transact is most important to us – it’s what keeps me going every day and it’s why we’re all here. I’m confident the steps we are taking today will ensure we can continue to deliver on our mission which the world needs now more than ever before. I remain extremely bullish on crypto and Kraken.”

The OFAC settlement and the $362,000 fine

Recently, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) officially announced that it had reached an agreement with Kraken on the issue of violations of the sanctions imposed by the US on Iran. 

Basically, OFAC reportedly entered into an agreement with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, to pay over $362,000 to settle its potential civil liability on this lawsuit. 

Not only that, the crypto-exchange has also agreed to invest another $100,000 in additional compliance audits of the rules governing such sanctions. 

The allegation against Kraken arose last July, and it appears that the US crypto-exchange did not have the ability to implement appropriate geolocation tools in a timely manner to identify that users who operated on the platform could have come from Iran.