Major Crypto Exchanges Initiate New Round of Layoffs
OKX is globally restructuring its institutional business, cutting about one-third to half of its institutional sales team.
Gemini plans to reduce about 30% of its workforce by early 2026, while Crypto.com is laying off 12%, approximately 180 employees, mainly due to market downturns and a shift towards AI integration; Binance has stated that there are currently no plans for large-scale layoffs.
With trading volume and revenue under pressure, exchanges are trimming non-core labor costs and shifting towards AI automation for operations, benefiting institutional investors and compliance platforms, while traditional customer service and operational roles are under strain.
Source: Public Information
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OKX has previously optimized its team multiple times during the 2022-2023 bear market, and this targeted layoff in the institutional sales department continues its strategy of cost control during bear markets and expansion during bull markets; Gemini has made several adjustments since the FTX collapse, previously facing overstaffing due to compliance expansion, and is now focusing on AI transformation to address declining revenues.
In terms of capital strategy, the labor cost savings from exchanges are being redirected towards investments in AI tools and custody services, with Crypto.com explicitly replacing some roles with AI, while Gemini is using layoffs to free up cash flow to support compliance and product iteration, motivated by the need to reduce fixed costs and improve marginal profit margins in response to fluctuations in trading fees.
Similar to Coinbase's two large-scale layoffs during the 2022-2023 cycle, which shifted towards custody and the Base chain, leading exchanges are currently transitioning from reliance on trading fees to diversified revenue streams, with OKX, Gemini, and others strengthening their institutional and stable income moats through downsizing.
This fundamentally represents a technological replacement: AI automates customer service, compliance checks, and operational processes, replacing repetitive human roles, with the mechanism being that the cyclical downturn in the crypto market compresses revenues, while AI has very low marginal costs and can operate 24/7, shifting pricing power from human scale to technological efficiency platforms, and funds from traditional operational roles to AI infrastructure development.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
In cyclical troughs, fixed labor becomes the largest liability.
Where technology can replace, scale expansion must first slim down.
In a revenue-volatile industry, cash reserves are more life-saving than market share.