Circle lays off 30 staff due to regulatory uncertainty

Cryptocurrency firm Circle has laid off ten percent of its staff, blaming the tough regulatory climate in the US.

Most of the cutbacks centre around the firm’s Boston office, with a small number of administrative positions closed off in New York.

Explaining the decision to let 30 staff go, the company says: “We made these changes in response to new market conditions, most importantly, an increasingly restrictive regulatory climate in the United States.”

Circle has grown increasingly critical of US regulatory policy towards cryptoassets in recent months. The Goldman Sachs-backed company spent approximately $400 million on the acquisition of crypto-exchange Poloniex last year. It also acquired equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest with the aim of creating a regulatory-approved token marketplace for capital formulation by businesses and individual entrepreneurs.

However, just last week Circle moved to restrict trading on Poloniex to non-US markets, citing the uncertain regulatory climate.

Circle founder Jeremy Allaire explains: “We are deeply frustrated that we needed to take these steps, but they are the direct result of the signaling from the recent guidance, in which US regulators are taking an extremely broad view of what crypto assets might be deemed securities.

“Innovators, including those working around the clock at Circle and many other companies in the US and abroad, have continued to transform what’s possible with crypto and blockchain technologies. Unfortunately, regulation has failed to keep up.”