Crypto exchange Kraken recently announced a significant corporate restructuring. The company laid off 15% of its workforce, totalling around 400 employees from its roughly 2,600-person team. The job cuts included high-level departures: Chief Operating Officer Gilles BianRosa and Chief Technology Officer Vishnu Patankar have exited.
In an official blog post, Kraken explained its aim to streamline operations and strengthen its core offerings. The new changes come alongside the appointment of Arjun Sethi as co-CEO. Sethi, a veteran from Silicon Valley, joins Dave Ripley, who took the CEO role in 2023 after the departure of Kraken’s founder, Jesse Powell.
Ripley and Sethi outlined the company’s strategic direction, emphasizing the need for agility. “We need to be leaner and faster,” they wrote, stating that Kraken’s mission remains focused on accelerating crypto adoption worldwide. With these changes, Kraken looks to eliminate managerial layers that it believes have slowed decision-making and increased operational costs.
Kraken focuses on enhancing product development
The blog post presented the underlying problem of consistently growing while keeping the operations running smoothly. The new change will help the engineering, product, and design teams quickly focus on product building, with the other teams taking care of management. Kraken’s leaders have confidence that this transition will enhance product development and lead to customer satisfaction.
The restructuring shows the company’s ambition to create a connection between cryptocurrency and traditional financial services. Kraken focuses on crypto being more accessible and practical as the goal of growth is boomed along with strict control of the financials. Nevertheless, Kraken might be the new role model when it comes to growth combined with efficiency.
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