As the crypto winter gets colder the number of blockchain and crypto companies downsizing will continue to increase. Blockfolio has become the latest to shed staff and put its incubator project on the back burner.
It has happened to some of the biggest players in the industry including Bitmain, ConsenSys and Shapeshift, and now Blockfolio has joined those downsizing as the crypto winter continues. Anyone that bought crypto in 2018 or late 2017 will not even want to open their Blockfolio app any more for fear of the pain that will be displayed on the screen.
According to The Block the small California based team that produces the app has shrunk by almost ten percent and now stands at 37 employees. CEO Edward Moncado said that it has been a very difficult decision but an inevitable one considering the current bear market. The firm has also sidelined its incubator program and severed contracts with five other people involved in the project.
The move comes despite a large series A cash raise three months ago. Fortune reported on the successful funding led by Pantera Capital in October when the plan was to expand beyond being just a crypto tracking app.
Questions have arisen as the venture capital funding of over $11 million should have kept the small operation afloat. Sources have cited extravagant expenses such as company lunches, lavish parties, and even a seven person trip to Prague to launch the 2.0 version of the app. Sources also told The Block;
“We didn’t need 40 people. Look at delta.app a competitor – they have like a dozen people. Why did Blockfolio need to grow like that?”
Moncado has defended the expenses stating that they had been extremely frugal while taking “proactive steps to ensure we’d make it through any market.” Clearly these steps have not been significant enough and monetization of its existing products has yet to come to fruition.
In addition to the crypto app, the team also launched Signal last year, a communications platform for token teams.
“Signal has been a tremendous success. It’s been enthusiastically embraced by all the token team projects. It was the first of its kind. Now you’re starting to see some copycats, but it validates the product”, Moncado added. However the company blog has not been updated since November so new developments are not being shared with the public, at least via this platform.
Blockfolio may have just tightened its belt a little but other companies such as Bitmain, ConsenSys and Shapeshift are feeling the bigger pinch as the snow deepens during the crypto winter.
