Key Takeaways
- Bitwise cut 14% of its staff, reducing headcount to about 155 from 180 employees.
- The cuts mirror layoffs this year at Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com and Kraken amid the slump.
- CIO Matt Hougan says bitcoin is bottoming now, citing fading leverage and record stablecoin supply.
A Rough Stretch for Crypto’s Asset Managers
Bitwise Asset Management, one of the largest crypto-focused asset managers in the United States, has laid off roughly 14% of its staff, according to Bloomberg.
The reduction comes as a prolonged slump in digital-asset prices has forced firms across the industry to cut costs, even though Bitwise itself recently surpassed $15 billion in client assets, up from about $11 billion in April (suggesting the cuts are about cost discipline rather than shrinking business).
The move also stands in contrast to Bitwise’s trajectory just 18 months ago. In February 2025, the firm raised $70 million from investors to expand its team and roll out new crypto products. That expansion drive has now reversed as market conditions soured through 2026, even as the firm keeps expanding its product lineup elsewhere, including a spot XRP ETF launched on the NYSE and filings for 11 additional single-token ETFs tied to tokens such as Hyperliquid, Sui, Near and Aave.
Bitwise Isn’t Alone in the Cutbacks
The layoffs place Bitwise alongside a growing list of digital-asset firms trimming staff this year as Coinbase also cut 14% of its workforce earlier in 2026, and exchanges Gemini, Crypto.com and Kraken have all announced reductions as the industry’s job market struggles to recover.
Trackers have counted more than 7,254 disclosed job cuts across 47 companies so far this year, a figure the site’s researchers say likely understates the real total since many company disclosures omit concrete headcount stats.
A large chunk of the pressure traces back to bitcoin’s choppy price action in recent months, much of which was compounded (not in price action alone) recently when a firmware flaw rooted in a 2021 Coldcard software update drained roughly $116 million from thousands of addresses across four separate waves starting July 30.
Expected to arrive the same week, the CLARITY Act also stalled in the Senate ahead of its August recess. And while bitcoin absorbed both events without a sharp directional move, the extended uncertainty has weighed on trading volumes and, by extension, asset manager revenue.
The CIO Sees It Differently: ‘We’re Bottoming’
While Bitwise reduced its employee count, the firm’s chief investment officer (CIO), Matt Hougan, told reporters a different story about where bitcoin’s price is headed, stating that he believes the market is “in the process of bottoming right now,” pointing to a collapse in excess leverage across crypto derivatives markets, funding rates turning decisively negative, amongst other factors.
Hougan has made versions of this bottom call before. Back in July, he argued the bottom was closer than ever, pointing to volatility in Strategy’s preferred stock, bitcoin trading below key technical levels, and extreme readings on the Fear and Greed Index as signs of a leverage flush rather than a collapse in demand.
His latest comments add a fresh data point as stablecoin supply (often read as dry powder waiting to enter crypto markets) hit a record $322 billion earlier this year, larger than the foreign currency reserves of 95 countries.
Hougan also pointed to normalizing exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows as a sign that institutional selling pressure is easing, arguing the market is pricing bear-market conditions onto an industry roughly twice the size it was at the last cycle’s bottom.
The next real test for Hougan’s assertions arrives in September, when the Senate is expected to revisit the CLARITY Act, giving traders another catalyst to measure against his bottoming thesis.
