Crypto Unicorn CoinDCX Fires 12% Workforce

Coinbase Ventures-backed crypto exchange CoinDCX has let go of 12% of its workforce or 71 employees out of its total workforce of 590 employees

In a blogpost, cofounders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal said that the current macro conditions in the prolonged bear market and the impact of TDS on domestic exchanges has resulted in a dip in the startup’s overall revenue, eventually leading to a workforce reduction.

“….To further ensure we run as a healthier business way forward, the current situation demands that we work with a more efficient team structure. To this end, we have made the difficult decision to resize certain teams and to steer the business towards a profitable and sustainable growth,” the blog read. 

Last year, the government introduced a 1% tax deducted at sources (TDS) for virtual digital assets (VDAs) transactions, including cryptos and a 30% tax on income from all VDA transactions. 

These developments overnight sent the entire crypto space of the country into a tizzy, which already was at the crossroads of multiple scams and frauds across the globe. The crypto exchanges saw a decrease of around 60-70% in users after TDS was implemented.

The fresh layoffs have come almost seven months after there was an internal restructuring conducted by the company in January this year.

Founded by Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal in 2018, CoinDCX became the country’s first crypto unicorn in 2021 after raising $90 Mn in Series C from Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Last year, the startup raised $135 Mn in Series D, taking the total capital raised to $247 Mn. 

The startup slipped into the red in FY22 after it posted a net loss of INR 41.34 Cr in FY22 compared to a net profit of INR 4.36 Cr in FY21. The startup’s operating revenue surged over 12.5X YoY to INR 588.5 Cr in FY22. The crypto unicorn’s advertising expenses grew to INR 323.5 Cr from INR 1.8 Cr in FY21.

Besides witnessing a dip in revenue, the regulatory guidelines introduced by the Indian government and being closely watched by RBI has resulted in several startups working in the crypto space shutting their shops. Due to market uncertainties, three crypto startups – Pillow, Flint Money, and WeTrade had to shut their operations in the past few months. 

According to the Inc42 layoff tracker, the layoffs at Indian startups have impacted over 29,000 employees since 2022 due to the ongoing macroeconomic economic slowdown.

The fresh round of layoffs by CoinDCX was first reported by Entrackr