Coinbase-Backed Indian Crypto Exchange Vauld Lays Off 30% Workforce

The extreme pullback in the cryptocurrency market in the past few months has forced Coinbase, Bybit, and CryptoCom to reduce headcount. Now Indian trading platform Vauld has joined the league and announced a hefty 30% lay-off, which counts Pantera and Coinbase, among others, as investors.  

Vauld Lay-off

According to a corporate communication available on its website, co-founder and CEO Darshan Bathija said the decision to reduce the workforce was taken last Friday (June 17), and it was prompted by the economic slowdown and prolonged market downturn. 

Besides, Vauld will also implement a 50% cut in executive remuneration, pause most vendor engagements, slow down hiring, and reduce spending on marketing. 

The reduction has been effected in every team in the organization with a bias towards marketing and HR as the company plans to slow down efforts associated with these teams, Bathija added. 

Earlier this month, Coinbase reduced its global workforce by 1,100, of which 8% are believed to be from its India operations. Bybit laid off an undisclosed number of its 2000-strong workforce while CryptoCom reduced its staff members by 5%, which works out to be around 260 employees. Similarly, crypto exchange Gemini announced its first-ever job cuts where it will lay off 10% of its existing staff.

Fighting Crypto Winter

The Singapore-headquartered startup blamed uncertain market conditions and “uncertainty in the eyes of customers” due to the current upheaval in the market for the “painful” decision. Vauld had continued to hire in 2022 regardless of the early signs of the economic slowdown, Bathija admitted. 

“We know that resilient companies are built during bear markets. Sanju and I started Vauld during the last crypto winter and we’re here because we carefully managed expenses then. We believe that these measures are necessary so that we’re very strong in the long term,” he said.

The employees impacted by the retrenchment will get two months’ salary as severance benefit, retain the signing/joining bonus, and benefit from medical insurance for themselves and their immediate family for 12 months. Vauld will also help the outgoing employees in finding employment, Bathija added.        

Bouquet of Services

Besides trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, BAT, XLM, USDT, USDC, BUSD, TUSD, and DAI, Vauld also offers some creation services for crypto investors. These include cryptocurrency-leveraged fixed deposits and lending and borrowing. Although Vauld is headquartered in Singapore, the majority of its employees are based in India.

Founded by Darshan Bathija and Sanju Kurian in 2018, Vauld has so far raised $27 million. The last funding round was concluded in July 2021 when it raised $25 million in Series A funding, led by PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, Robert Leshner, Cadenza Capital, and Gumi Cryptos also participated in this funding round.