Polkadot Blockchain Developer to Eliminate About 30% of Staff

Muyao Shen, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Parity Technologies, the blockchain infrastructure company behind the Polkadot platform, will cut 30% of its workforce, or about 100 employees, as part of its plan to “shift” focus to its technology.

The decision will affect teams including so-called go-to-market efforts, as Parity shifts its focus to technology supporting Polkadot, a platform that allows different blockchains to communicate with each other, according to Björn Wagner, chief executive officer of Parity, through a spokesperson, in an email statement Monday.

“Approximately 30% of our less than 400 staff will see their functions or contracts sunset at Parity over a transition period of a few months,” said Wagner. “Over this period, we will be doubling down on our efforts to enable those affected to continue to contribute to Polkadot beyond their tenure at Parity and we are excited to already see initiatives beginning to take shape.”

Polkadot’s DOT token has a market value of $5.3 billion, making it the 15th biggest cryptocurrency, based on data from CoinGecko. The token has dropped about 40% from its high for the year reached in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company hinted about the layoffs earlier this month in a post on the social media platform X.

“Parity’s financial health and regulatory engagement remains robust, and we will continue to be focused on Polkadot’s success,” Wagner said.

Parity is not the only crypto technology firm that has announced job cuts this year. Polygon Labs, the company behind Polygon also cut about 100 employees. Many blockchain platforms became popular after the explosive growth in the decentralized finance sector in the past few years. But DeFi, which includes decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer lenders running on blockchains, have faced challenges amid the decline in risk appetite and multiple crypto blowups since last year.

Read more: Bored Ape NFTs Creator Yuga Labs Joins In On Crypto Lay-Offs

In 2017, Polkadot raised $140 million in an initial coin offering. Its co-founder Gavin Wood, also known for his early involvement in the Ethereum blockchain, relinquished his role as CEO of Parity in October 2022.

The total value of cryptocurrencies sent to Polkadot-related blockchains stands at around $114 million, according to data from DeFiLlama.