Two well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, Uphold and Luno, cut their global workforces in late July 2026 as they accelerate a strategic shift toward enterprise and institutional services amid a prolonged slump in retail trading activity.
Uphold, the New York-based multi-asset platform, reduced its headcount by roughly 17%, affecting 85 permanent employees and contractors across several regions. CEO Simon McLoughlin explained the move as a recalibration after years of rapid expansion, stating, “Despite the current slowdown in crypto trading activity, we’ve never been more confident in the prospects for digital assets and blockchain technology.” The layoffs follow three consecutive quarterly declines in the total crypto market capitalization, which sank to about $2.1 trillion at the end of Q2, as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana prices trended lower. Weaker volumes and fee income forced the company to refocus resources on its growing enterprise division, which provides crypto trading and custody infrastructure to banks, fintechs, and broker-dealers.
Luno, a London-headquartered subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, confirmed a 20% reduction in its global staff during the same month. CEO James Lanigan attributed the restructuring to the need to adjust the operating model after a year of investments in automation and process improvements that changed the firm’s human resource requirements. Luno, which serves 16 million users mostly in Africa and Asia-Pacific, is doubling down on its business-to-business (B2B) offering. It already powers crypto products for institutional partners like Discovery Bank and is a founding member of ZARU, a stablecoin pegged to the South African rand, backed by Sanlam, Lesaka Technologies, and EasyEquities. The exchange aims to replicate this local-currency stablecoin model in other emerging economies.
Both platforms are responding to industry-wide pressure on retail-focused venues. Uphold plans to expand its consumer app into a multi-asset, blockchain-enabled financial companion by year-end, adding U.S. stocks, tokenized securities, asset-backed lending, and DeFi yield opportunities tied to assets such as XRP. Luno is leveraging its infrastructure to offer liquidity, custody, and compliance support to third parties, hoping to generate steadier revenue from institutional contracts. The twin announcements underscore a broader trend: crypto exchanges are diversifying away from volatile spot trading toward infrastructure and stablecoin payments to weather market cycles.
