Consensys, the maker of the popular MetaMask crypto wallet, is cutting over 160 employees across all divisions of the company. Founder and CEO Joe Lubin announced the news in a blog post that attributed the layoffs to headwinds from the macroeconomy as well as legal expenditures from the company's protracted battles with regulators.
"Multiple cases with the SEC, including ours, represent meaningful jobs and productive investment lost due to the SEC's abuse of power and Congress's inability to rectify the problem," wrote Lubin. "Such attacks from the U.S. government will end up costing many companies…many millions of dollars."
Lubin's comments echo a widely held sentiment in the crypto industry that the Securities and Exchange Commission has operated in bad faith when it comes to setting out a clear regulatory pathway for digital asset companies. The agency's head, Gary Gensler, says the SEC's existing laws are clear and has filed lawsuits alleging securities laws violations against the crypto industry's leading companies—including Consensys.
Lubin launched Consensys in Brooklyn in 2014 as an incubator of sorts for projects building on the then-nascent blockchain, which today is the second-biggest blockchain and a backbone of the crypto industry. Its flagship product is MetaMask, which offers a decentralized way to hold tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem and access a variety of related services.
Consensys has since relocated its headquarters to Texas, where it has worked on developing various infrastructure tools to support Ethereum. In recent years, this work has been hampered by ongoing regulatory uncertainty, which led Lubin to take the bold step of suing the SEC in April as part of a bid to confirm that Ethereum is not a security—a view widely held by many crypto lawyers. A federal court dismissed the preemptive this summer but a related case, brought by the SEC, is ongoing.
Consensys has appeared to win at least one legal battle, though, forcing the agency to step back from an investigation into many firms and developers who rely on Ethereum in their operations.
Lubin told Fortune that the layoffs, which he describes as a "tough but prudent decision to streamline our operations," would affect around 162 of the 828 employees who work at Consensys. He added that layoffs would extend to every unit, including business development and product.
The company says it is supplying generous severance, including career support and extended health care benefits.
Going forward, Lubin wrote that Consensys will seek to its accelerate its transition from a conventional company into a decentralized "network state" in accordance with the ideals of blockchain.
