The largest US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is closing its Chicago office and scales down the development of its matching engine. The news comes from Fortune Magazine.
The Chicago office of Coinbase was actually opened in 2018, as the company considered this to be a great move to tap into the city’s great financial positioning, as well as to expand trading operations.
However, the cryptocurrency market is not doing “a great job” at sustaining steady and healthy market capitalization. Just today, the overall market cap of alt coins dropped by around $4 billion and is now standing at around $176 billion.
The closing of the office also involves the layoff of around 30 engineers, but some of the workforce will be relocated to San Francisco. The reason for that is that he company made the decision to consolidate the high-frequency trading matching engine efforts into its San Francisco office.
Coinbase was on a hiring spree just recently, as the business and customer-base grew tremendously, especially with the crypto boom back in the beginning of 2018.
According to Fortune Magazine, Coinbase is no longer focusing on high-frequency trading, but will focus on other products such as OTC trading products and custody services.
In addition, the shutting down of the Chicago office may not seem as a huge money saver, but according to The Block, the salaries of the team could have been in the range of $5 – $6 million. This amount excludes any bonuses, the cost of the technology itself and other operational costs such as office rent.