Key Highlights
- Bitwise Asset Management has reduced its workforce by approximately 14%, cutting staff from around 180 to about 155 employees.
- CEO Hunter Horsley said the remaining workforce is still the largest in the firm’s eight-year history.
- The cuts come after digital assets fell sharply during the first half of 2026, with Bitwise estimating the crypto market declined about 36%.
Bitwise Asset Management Inc., a cryptocurrency asset management firm, has reduced its workforce by about 14% as a prolonged decline in digital-asset prices weighs on the cryptocurrency industry. The San Francisco-based firm cut its staff to around 155 employees from approximately 180.
According to a Bloomberg report published on Wednesday, Chief Executive Hunter Horsley said the remaining workforce is still the largest in the company’s eight-year history. He added that the firm expects continued growth as crypto becomes more integrated into the global economy.
The reduction comes after a sharp decline in digital-asset prices during the first half of 2026 and follows similar workforce cuts across the crypto industry. The Bitwise team independently confirmed the layoffs to The Crypto Times when asked to verify the accuracy of the report.
Bitwise market review
Crypto asset prices declined sharply during the first half of 2026. In a Crypto Market Review for the second quarter of 2026 published on July 14, Bitwise identified five trends it believes are driving the next phase of digital asset adoption.
Ryan Rasmussen, Bitwise’s Head of Research, stated that investors focusing only on token prices risk overlooking structural changes across the industry. He wrote, “There are bull markets everywhere for those with the eyes to see.”
While crypto assets fell roughly 36% in the first half of 2026, Rasmussen noted continued expansion in institutional adoption, tokenization, application revenue, and on-chain financial activity. Those developments, however, have not prevented Bitwise from reducing headcount as the broader market remains under pressure.
Other crypto firms have cut staff
Bitwise’s reduction follows workforce cuts at several other cryptocurrency companies this year.
On May 5, Coinbase Global Inc. disclosed a restructuring plan that affected roughly 700 employees, or about 14% of its global workforce as of May 1, 2026. An SEC filing stated the plan was intended to manage operating expenses in response to market conditions at the time and to optimize operations for the AI era.
BitGo cut nearly 15% of its workforce. CEO Mike Belshe announced the reduction via X on June 26. The restructuring redirected the company’s financial and engineering resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, stablecoins, and advanced trading services.
Polygon Labs carried out a corporate transformation while finalizing its acquisition of Coinme, a digital currency exchange. The firm shifted its business model from a blockchain foundation to a blockchain-enabled payments company and announced related layoffs. In an X post on July 16, CEO Marc Boiron said the company was in the final stages of integrating Coinme’s team and that the restructuring aimed to position Polygon Labs for profitability in 2027.
Meanwhile, Luno reduced its global workforce by roughly 20%. At the time, CEO James Lanigan said the Digital Currency Group-owned exchange had cut headcount worldwide as part of a restructuring.
Crypto firms adjust to weaker market conditions
The Bitwise reduction adds to a broader pattern of workforce adjustments across the crypto industry in 2026.
Coinbase, BitGo, Polygon Labs and Luno have also reduced headcount, with some companies citing efforts to control costs or redirect resources toward areas including artificial intelligence, stablecoins, trading and payments.
The cuts have come as digital-asset prices declined during the first half of the year, even as companies across the sector continued to expand in areas such as institutional adoption and tokenization.
Also Read: Ondo Urges SEC to Address Tokenized Stocks in Market Rule Rewrite
