Interesting developments in the crypto industry. Gemini, the exchange of the Winklevoss brothers, has just announced a 30% reduction in staff since the beginning of this year. As of March, there were about 445 employees left there, after previous rounds of layoffs.

What happened? The company is moving toward more active use of AI to optimize operations. At the same time, it exited the UK, the EU, and Australia. Several top managers were laid off, including the operations, finance, and legal directors.

The financial situation there is serious. The full-year loss totaled $585 million. This includes unrealized losses on crypto assets following previous losses of more than $500 million. In the fourth quarter, revenue rose by 40% to approximately $60 million, but losses surged to $140.8 million from $27 million.

According to Kaiko, Gemini’s share of the global market is less than 1%. For contrast, one of the largest U.S. exchanges operates with volumes roughly 42 times higher and employs about 11 times more staff. The scale difference is clear.

An interesting point is that this is not an isolated case. The entire industry is going through restructuring. Another major exchange recently cut 12% of its staff, citing adaptation to changes related to AI. Algorand reduced by about 25%. OP Labs, a key player in the Optimism ecosystem, cut around 20 positions. Even a company belonging to one well-known entrepreneur laid off more than 4,000 jobs, although it later rehired some.

The context adds more pressure. Bitcoin is still 44% below its October peak, and trading volumes are low due to volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty. All of this is pushing market players toward more aggressive optimization measures.

The trend is clear—there is a wave of reorientation toward AI and automation in the crypto industry. Companies that don’t adapt are starting to fall seriously behind. Gemini is trying to restructure, but it seems that this isn’t enough to regain competitiveness in a market dominated by far larger platforms.