Crypto firm BitGo trims staff by 15%

BitGo Holdings became the latest name in a long line of crypto firms cutting jobs this year, slashing roughly 15% of its workforce on Thursday. CEO Mike Belshe broke the news himself in a post on X. “Today I’m sharing a hard decision: we are reducing our workforce by nearly 15%,” he wrote. “The ecosystem has evolved, and the way we build financial services has changed dramatically.”

He went on to outline where the company’s remaining resources would go. “We need to be sharper, more focused, and concentrate our people and energy on the areas that matter most: security, trading, stablecoins, settlement, and AI-powered infrastructure,” Belshe said.

Exactly how many people lost their jobs remains a bit murky, since BitGo has not officially confirmed the headcount affected. Belshe characterised the cuts as “a one-time action,” adding that BitGo does not “anticipate further reductions.” The company’s job board currently lists 51 open roles spread across multiple regions.

This isn’t BitGo’s first moment in the spotlight this year. The company went public in January at $18 a share, becoming the first major crypto listing of 2026 and inviting a level of investor scrutiny that didn’t exist before.

Its full-year 2025 numbers told a mixed story: revenue jumped more than fourfold to $16.2 billion, but the bulk of that came from low-margin digital asset sales rather than higher-value services. Adjusted EBITDA landed at just $32.4 million, and a decline in the value of its Bitcoin treasury pushed the company to a $14.8 million net loss for the year.

The pressure didn’t ease in the most recent quarter either. First-quarter revenue climbed 112.6% year over year to $3.8 billion, yet the net loss more than doubled, jumping from $25.7 million to $60.7 million. BitGo pointed to Bitcoin revaluation and IPO-related expenses as the main drivers behind that widening gap. Despite the loss, leadership signaled at the time that spending on core infrastructure and stablecoin and tokenization projects would continue.

That commitment lines up with where Belshe wants his trimmed-down team to spend its energy. BitGo picked up a federal trust bank charter from the OCC back in December, and in April it rolled out a new minting tool targeting the stablecoin market, an area the company sees as a path to fatter margins than its legacy custody business.

Not everyone is buying the strategic framing, though. Thomas Braziel, who runs distressed-crypto firm 117 Partners, suggested the real driver might be simpler: cost. “I mean – BitGo is the highest cost operator for BTC storage on the planet so I get it,” he wrote in a post.

BitGo joins a growing list of crypto companies that have downsized in 2026, many pointing to AI-driven efficiency or a broader market slowdown as justification. Robinhood cut 10% of its staff on June 16. Kraken’s parent company, Payward, cut 150 employees in May and Coinbase let go of around 700 people. Earlier in the year, Gemini cut 200 jobs and Crypto.com cut roughly 180, both citing the growing role of AI in their operations.