Nansen Blockchain Firm Reducing Staff 'Surface Area' by 30%

In Brief

• Nansen grew too quickly according to CEO.
• Brutal bear market also cited for workforce cuts.
• Crypto companies are still suffering staff reductions.

The crypto bear market is still gripping many companies, including blockchain analytics firm Nansen which has just announced a major staff cut.

On May 30, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik announced an “extremely difficult decision” to reduce the size of the Nansen team. In a statement to employees, he stated that the staff would be reduced by 30%.

“We’ll have to part ways with incredible people who have contributed to Nansen with hard work, intelligence, and creativity. And I am deeply sorry to everyone affected.”

Nansen Bear Market Blues
Svanevik cited two primary reasons for the staff layoffs at Nansen. Firstly, he said that the company scaled up too fast to cover its “breakneck growth” in the early years of operating.

Before apologizing for the mistake, he added that this growth was not truly a part of Nansen’s core strategy.

Secondly, he said that the last year has been “brutal for crypto markets.” Diversification of revenues from enterprise and institutional clients has been seen, he said before adding:“Our cost base is too high relative to where the company is today.”

He added that Nansen had “several years of runway,” but only if it can build a sustainable business. This involves “reducing our surface area” to a smaller Nansen team, he said.

According to its LinkedIn, Nansen was founded in 2020 and employed as many as 200 staff. According to Crunchbase, the firm has raised a total of $88.2 million in funding over four rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec. 16, 2021, from a Series B round netting $75 million with a pre-money valuation of $675 million.

Crypto Layoffs Continue
Despite the 45% crypto market rally in 2023, industry operators like Nansen continue to suffer.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Paradigm-backed NFT ownership platform Tessera was shutting down. The move comes as NFT markets have tanked more than 80% over the past 12 months in terms of volume.

On May 8, Australian blockchain gems tracker Everledger was quietly placed into voluntary administration, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Furthermore, Tom Brady’s NFT startup Autograph cut nearly a third of its workforce in early May. April saw staff cuts and company turmoil for risk management and crypto compliance TRM Labs and Anchorage Digital.

Additionally, Dapper Labs, Messari, Immutable, Polygon, Fireblocks, Gemini, Chainalysis, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Huobi, SuperRare, Genesis, and Wyre have all slashed staff in 2023.

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