Payments provider Affirm to sunset crypto program after 19% staff cut

Max Levchin, the CEO of buy-now-pay-later company Affirm, has confirmed that they will be shutting down their “Affirm Crypto Program” amid dampening consumer spending and a changing macroeconomic environment.

The CEO

The shutdown is of course a part of a larger staff cleanout for the San Francisco-based lending platform. Levchin said the 19% reduction in its workforce took effect today.

In a Feb. 8 note to employees, Levchin shouldered the blame by stating that he acted too slowly to actions from the U.S. Federal Reserve:

“Everything changed in mid-2022. Over the last three quarters, the Fed increased its benchmark rate at an unprecedented pace. This has already dampened consumer spending and increased Affirm’s cost of borrowing dramatically. The root cause of where we are today is that I acted too slowly as these macroeconomic changes unfolded.”

Approximately 2,593 individuals claim to be employed at Affirm, according to current figures from LinkedIn.

This means about 500 people were likely impacted by today’s announcement.

Related: Coinbase to cut another 20% of its workforce in second wave of layoffs

Cointelegraph reached out to Affirm to find out how many employees related to its crypto initiative were impacted, however, no additional information was shared.

The CEO did however state in the letter that he expects to keep the current headcount to remain essentially flat for the foreseeable future.

The price of Affirm’s stock, tickered AFRM, has fallen 19.1% in after-hours trading in the NASDAQ, according to Google Finance.