Crypto Winter started feeling even colder in June, with layoffs spreading across the industry as the bearish market dragged on. BlockFi announced a reduction of nearly 25% of its staff; Coinbase nearly 20%, while Winklevoss-led Gemini cut 10% of its workforce. The list kept growing beyond the U.S.: Argentina’s BuenBit slashed over 50% of its staff, and Mexico’s Bitso laid off over 80 employees.

A more constructive track continued in parallel. Central banks worldwide are racing to explore and launch CBDCs, and several countries have already rolled out digital versions of fiat, including China’s digital yuan and Nigeria’s e-Naira. Asked about a future CBDC pegged to the U.S. dollar, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it is “something we really need to explore as a country,” and that it “should not be a partisan thing.”

Goldman Sachs To The Rescue

Some tough months for the crypto market. First Terralabs collapses, crypto companies downsizing, and now the largest asset manager and crypto lender Celsius is facing financial turmoil. On June 12th, the company froze withdrawals and transfers on its platform on June 12th due to “extreme market conditions.” The firm, without prior notice, decided to halt all the activity on its platform and locked users out of their funds. Rumours started circulating on Crypto Twitter about Celsius becoming insolvent shortly after, and that it might file for bankruptcy. As reported, Goldman Sachs, one of the largest US investment banks, is seeking to raise funds from investors to buy Celsius shares at a discount price.

3AC At The Risk Of Default

Three Arrows Capital (3AC) is at the risk of default as the deadline for paying major investors comes closer. 3AC is one of the biggest crypto hedge funds in the industry, but some bad investments, amplified with the downturn of the cryptocurrency market, are causing 3AC a liquidity and solvency crisis. Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency exchange, issued a notice of default to 3AC since the hedge fund hasn’t repaid the 15,250 BTC and $350 million USDC loan from a previous agreement. It’s worth noting that 3AC invested 600+ million in the now failed cryptocurrency LUNA—now relaunched as LUNA 2.0—, but following Terra’s UST collapse, that investment is now worth less than $600.

Crypto Currencies Downsizing Amid Bearish Market

Several cryptocurrency companies grew exponentially during the 2021 crypto market bull run, expanding their headquarters as things looked favourable for the community. However, as the market started taking a U-turn in early 2022, numerous crypto companies, especially exchanges, decided to cut jobs and reduce their staff considerably. BlockFi announced a reduction of nearly 25% of its staff; Coinbase nearly 20%, while Winkleboss-led Gemini had to cut 10% of its workforce. The list goes on and on. Not only US companies, but firms all over the world are also feeling the pain of the bearish market. Argentina’s BuenBit slashed over 50% of its staff; Mexico’s BitSo laid off over 80 employees.

Tether And The Big Short

According to Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, several hedge funds are trying to bet against USDT by shorting it through several markets and creating imbalances in DeFi pools. According to Ardoino, these entities unsuccessfully tried to short USDT by causing panic and FUD, and causing Tether a Terra Labs-like collapse.

Coinbase Pro Closing Down This Year

Coinbase Pro is Coinbase’s advanced charting platform designed for professional traders, and offers more trading features and lower fees than its original interface. The platform, however, is closing down later this year, migrating all users to the main Coinbase dashboard. Coinbase said that it will soon be launching a replacement feature called Advance Trade, which will be located in Coinbase’s homepage.

FED Chairman Powell: Digital Dollar Needs To Be Explored

The majority of central banks worldwide are in a race to explore and launch their own CBDCs, and several institutions have already rolled out the digital version of their country’s fiat currency, such as the digital Yuan or Nigeria’s e-Naira. When asked about a future CBDC pegged to the US dollar, Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, believes “it’s something we really need to explore as a country, and it should not be a partisan thing.”

Conclusion

June made the market’s fault lines hard to ignore. Liquidity stress at large lenders, leverage blowups around major funds, and a widening wave of layoffs showed how quickly a bull-market operating model breaks under pressure. 

At the same time, the CBDC track kept moving forward, with central banks treating digital fiat as strategic infrastructure rather than a pilot project. The message for the second half of the year is that risk controls and balance-sheet resilience are becoming the differentiators, while regulation and state-backed digital money keep tightening the perimeter around the sector.

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