Ignite Crypto Company Cuts Headcount By 50%, Former Employees Claim

The Ignite crypto company that originally founded the Cosmos blockchain, cut down on the employees by 50% according to former employees of the company after the controversial CEO returned so let’s read more in today’s blockchain news.

The Ignite crypto company parted with more than half of its employees last week as two former employees told the news. The news came right after CEO Peng Zhong announced he will be leaving the company and he was also joined by other top executives of the company/ against the backdrop of the reorganization, the high-profile exits at the company placed the company’s future into question.

Ignite laid off some employees and others volunteered to leave the company for severance packages this is the latest company joining the list of companies that were hit hard by the recent collapse of the sector like BlockFi. Coinbase, Crypto.com, and more were also in the middle of it. However, Ignite’s workforce cuts didn’t come only from the market conditions but also from internal factors. According to two former employees, the potential for cuts was announced by the former CEO Jae Kwon who returned to the company back in May.

Kwon as one of the Cosmos original creators founded Ignite and the parent company All In Bits back in 2014. he stepped down as the Tendermint CEO in 2020 after a dispute with the employees but retained a seat on the All In Bits Board. Kwon was rumored to return to the company as the CEO of New Tendermint whcih was an Ignite Spin-off focused on his side projects. When Kwon announced his return to the company in May, he said severance packages will be offered to employees. According to one of the former employees, the details about the new organizational structure remained vague for a few weeks after the announcement.

Employees were invited to apply to work at New Tendermint as Kwon’s new venture but those who didn’t apply were told they would be invited to join a version of the new initiative called Cosmos Cash. In February, ignite rebranded from the original name Tendermint and CEO Peng Zhon said that the rebrand was meant to signify a shift in strategy for the company which had historically voted on building the backend infrastrcuture for the entire Cosmos ecosystem. The ecosystem is a community of interconnected blockchains which can easily send assets back and forth. It made headlines with the announcement that dyDX will also be leaving ethereum in favor of the Cosmo blockchain.

Today, most of the Cosmos core infrastrcuture is maintained by a broad community of teams and companies and with the rebrand from Tendermint, Zhong said Ignite will place the bulk of the focus on Emeris.