Foundry Cuts Workforce by 60%: The World’s Largest Bitcoin Mining Pool Restructures

On Monday, Foundry, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, announced a significant reduction in its workforce, laying off approximately 60% of its staff. This decision, confirmed by a report from Blockspace, affects both US and international staff, reducing the company’s headcount from over 250 to around 80-90 employees.

Foundry Focuses On Core Business

Sources familiar with the matter, cited by Blockspace, revealed that the layoffs are part of a “strategic initiative” aimed at strengthening Foundry’s core revenue-generating operations. 

According to a shareholder letter from owner conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), Foundry is expected to generate $80 million in revenue from its self-mining business by 2024. A statement from Foundry said: 

We recently made the strategic decision to focus Foundry on our core business—operating the #1 Bitcoin mining pool in the world and growing our site operations business—while supporting the development of DCG’s newest subsidiaries.

Despite the layoffs, key divisions remain operational. Foundry’s Bitcoin mining pool, which currently accounts for 30% of the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate, continues to be its most notable business line. 

Additionally, the mining pool operations, firmware team, and self-mining division are still intact, although the company has dismissed its entire ASIC repair and hardware teams.

Layoffs Follow Genesis Collapse

The layoffs come in the wake of a turbulent period for Foundry and its parent company, Digital Currency Group. Following the collapse of Genesis, the subsidiary of Barry Silbert’s firm, Foundry had diversified into several business lines, including custom hardware and decentralized AI infrastructure. 

Last week, the company also transferred about 20 staff members to a new DCG subsidiary, Yuma, a decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) startup led by DCG and Barry Silbert who is also acting CEO of the new venture. 

Founded in 2017 as part of the Digital Currency Group conglomerate, Foundry has been seen as a pivotal player in the Bitcoin mining industry, previously offering competitive mining pool fee rates and even extending 0% fees to its largest clients. 

However, the company has faced challenges, including defaults on Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)-backed loans that contributed to the struggles of itself-mining segment.

The recent layoffs mark a critical juncture in Foundry’s journey, mirroring broader trends within the cryptocurrency space as companies grapple with regulatory pressures and market volatility. 

At the time of writing, the market’s leading crypto, Bitcoin, is trading at $95,570, consolidating over the past 10 days below its record high of $99,540, which has been elusive ever since, preventing the cryptocurrency from reaching the $100,000 milestone.

Currently, BTC is showing no change from yesterday’s price. However, in longer time frames, the cryptocurrency is still recording significant gains, especially in the monthly period where it has risen nearly 40%. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com