dYdX Trading, the firm behind the decentralized crypto exchange, has laid off 35% of its staff, with its newly returned CEO Antonio Juliano hinting at the need for a new company direction.  

“Today, I made the incredibly difficult decision to lay off 35% of the dYdX core team,” said Juliano, who rejoined as CEO of the company on Oct. 10 after stepping away from the role in May.

“The decision to let go was a realization that the company we’ve built is different from the company dYdX must be. We will move forward with clarity and renewed passion. We will create amazing things.”

It comes on the same day that Consensys — the firm behind MetaMask — reduced its workforce by 20% in a bid to become a “more agile organization,” according to CEO Joe Lubin. 

dYdX lays off 35% of staff shortly after major Consensys cuts image 0

Source: Ceteris

Juliano first hinted at a need to revitalize the company when he returned as the company’s CEO earlier this month, saying he was “going into Founder Mode™️ to run the company personally.” 

“dYdX has had a challenging year. We’ve faced tough competition and a tough market. It’s become obvious to me we need to revitalize the company or we will fade,” said Juliano in an Oct. 10 blog post titled “The return.”

dYdX lays off 35% of staff shortly after major Consensys cuts image 1

Source: Daniel Lian

dYdX Trading is the firm behind dYdX Chain, a layer-1 blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK and uses the Tendermint proof-of-stake protocol. 

One of its primary offerings, dYdX v4, is a perpetual futures exchange currently ranked sixth in 24-hour trading volume across all decentralized crypto exchanges, according to CoinMarketCap. 

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The company has had a tumultuous few months in Juliano’s absence.

In July, its exchange domain was compromised in a domain name service (DNS) attack, allowing the attacker to host a malicious site that requested any connected wallets to transfer Ether ( ETH ) and other ERC-20 tokens to the attacker’s Ethereum address. 

It was around the same time that reports emerged that dYdX had been discussing the sale of some of its derivative trading software with crypto market makers. 

dYdX later said in a statement that it was “exploring strategic alternatives related to the v3 technology,” which does not include the Ethereum smart contract or other technology governed by the utility token. 

The recent layoff also comes as Bitcoin ( BTC ) hit close to all-time highs on Oct. 29, falling just $300 short of its all-time high of $73,857. 

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