Robinhood lays off nearly a tenth of its workforce as stock hits record low

Robinhood, the popular retail trading platform, laid off 9% of its staff as its stock sold off and HOOD plummeted to an all-time low.

In the past 30 days alone, HOOD has fallen about 38% to $9.99 at the time of writing, the lowest price since the company's initial public offering (IPO) in mid-2021.

Since its all-time high of around $70.39 on August 4, 2021, the price of HOOD has continued to decline as part of a long-term bearish trend, according to TradingView.

On April 26, Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev publicly announced the company’s staff changes in a blog post. He noted that after a "period of high growth" between 2020 and the first half of 2021, the company's headcount has increased nearly sixfold, from 700 to nearly 3,800.

However, Tenev said too many jobs at the company have since become unnecessary, saying:

"The rapid growth in headcount has resulted in some duplication of roles and job functions, as well as more layers and complexity than ideal. After carefully considering all of these factors, we believe reducing Robinhood's headcount was the right decision to improve efficiency. "

"We will retain and continue to hire great people in key roles and provide our employees with additional learning and professional development opportunities," he added.

Will cryptocurrencies help fuel the recovery?

Looking ahead, Robinhood said in a statement that it is well positioned for the future with more than $6 billion in cash on its balance sheet, while also noting that the company will continue to roll out "brokerage, cryptocurrency and spending/savings" in 2022. Key new products in other fields".

The company's total revenue last year was $1.82 billion, an increase of 89% compared to 2020, and a large part of Robinhood's performance came from revenue generated by encryption services.

In 2021, crypto trading revenue will total $419 million, a year-on-year increase of 1451%. Specifically, in the second quarter of 2021, cryptocurrencies accounted for 41% of Robinhood's total revenue, but it is worth noting that this figure dropped to about 13% in the fourth quarter.

Robinhood doesn't appear to have lost interest in the industry this year, though, having made a number of recent moves aimed at expanding its crypto offerings.

On April 19, Cointelegraph reported that Robinhood had acquired U.K.-based crypto asset firm Ziglu to aid its expansion plans in the U.K. and European markets, which Tenev emphasized will “continue to accelerate” this year.

Earlier this month, Robinhood also launched its much-anticipated crypto wallet to 2 million users on a waitlist, outlined plans to integrate the Lightning Network, and listed Shiba Inu (SHIB) after months of hype from its backers. ).

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