Robinhood lays off 23% of its staff, citing a “general collapse of the crypto-currency market”

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the layoffs were concentrated in the operations, marketing and program management departments.

Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, informed that the company is reducing its workforce by another 23%. In explaining this decision, Vlad Tenev cited the difficult macroeconomic environment, which has weighed heavily on the equity and crypto-currency markets since the beginning of the year.

“We have seen a further deterioration in the macroeconomic environment, with inflation at a 40-year high, accompanied by a broad crash in the crypto-currency market. This has further reduced client trading activity and assets under custody” he said, while noting that the layoffs were concentrated in the company’s operations, marketing and program management departments.

This isn’t the first time Robinhood has cut staff this year. In April, the company first cut 9 percent of its 3,800 employees in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency. After these latest cuts, Robinhood reportedly still has 2,662 employees.

Rampant inflation and Federal Reserve interest rate hikes have crushed risk assets in the first half of 2022. High-growth technology stocks and crypto-currencies, which have typically received the highest trading volumes from Robinhood users, have performed very poorly this year, a factor that could contribute to the tradding app’s financial woes.

Vlad Tenev ended his note by assuring all affected employees that they would have the option of remaining employed by Robinhood until October 1, 2022, while receiving their usual salary and benefits.