Crypto.com says it will lay off 260 employees, joining the downsizing wave hitting crypto exchanges

• Crypto.com's CEO said the exchange will lay off 260 workers, or 5% of its workforce.
• Other exchanges, including Gemini and Coinbase, have announced layoffs or plans to freeze hiring.

Another cryptocurrency exchange has announced that it will be laying off workers.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said in a Saturday tweet that the Singapore-based exchange will be lay off 260 workers, or 5% of its workforce.

"Our approach is to stay focused on executing against our roadmap and optimizing for profitability as we do so," Marszalek wrote in the tweet.

"That means making difficult and necessary decisions to ensure continued and sustainable growth for the long term by making targeted reductions of approximately 260 or 5% of our corporate workforce," he added. The CEO did not specify when the layoffs would be happening.

Marszalek's announcement makes Crypto.com the latest crypto exchange to cut jobs or withdraw job offers amid a slump in the cryptocurrency market.

On June 2, Coinbase said it will freeze hiring and withdraw some job offers. On the same day, Gemini said it was going to cut about 10% of its workforce.

The cryptocurrency market had a stratospheric year in 2021 as investors poured money into the tokens. In November, the value of the crypto market hit a historic $3 trillion, Fortune reported last year.

During this time, Crypto.com pushed hard to make its presence felt. Last year, it spent more than $100 million on an advertising campaign that featured Matt Damon as its spokesperson, and paid a reported $700 million to have Staples Center in Los Angeles renamed Crypto.com Arena for the next 20 years.

But this year, with central banks keen to temper inflation by increasing interest rates, investors are diverting their investments away from cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the largest crypto-token in circulation, is at its lowest in 18 months, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Crypto exchanges were particularly hit hard amid the slump, as nonprofessional, or retail, traders held back on trading on their platforms, CoinDesk reported on June 4. Trading fees are a major source of revenue for exchanges.

Crypto.com did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comments.