Brisbane crypto firm Swyftx sacks 90 amid brutal market downturn

Brisbane cryptocurrency exchange firm Swyftx has been forced to sack 90 staff just weeks before Christmas due to a downturn in trading volumes following the collapse of FTX.

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Brisbane based cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx is sacking 90 staff, equivalent to more than one third of its employees, amid the brutal downturn in trading volumes following the collapse of FTX.

Swyftx co-founder Alex Harper told staff in an email Monday morning that the decision was one of the hardest he and fellow founder Angus Goldman have had to make in their careers. It follows an earlier round of 74 redundancies in August.

Alex Harper and Angus Goldman founded cryptocurrency powerhouse Swyftx in 2018

“We’re saying goodbye to 90 talented friends and colleagues,” said Mr Harper.

Mr Harper said Swyftx had “no direct exposure” to collapsed crypto exchange FTX but “was not immune to the fallout it has caused in the crypto markets.”

“As a result, we have to prepare in advance for a worst-case scenario of further significant drops in global trade volumes during the first half of next year and the potential for more black swan-type events,” he said.

“Our business is uniquely well-positioned to weather events like FTX. We provide a customer experience that is unrivalled in cryptocurrency and we are by a distance, the country’s most trusted exchange.”

But he added Swftx did not exist in isolation from the market and was acting fast and acting early by significantly reducing the size of our team.

“We do this with a sadness that is very difficult to put into words,” he said.

Mr Harper and Mr Goldman, both 27, founded Australia’s second-biggest cryptocurrency exchange in 2018 after meeting at a science camp as teenagers. Last year there were hiring a new worker each day as they rolled out ambitions to dominate the market.

The company moved last year into trendy new headquarters in Milton where its mostly millennial-aged staff enjoy free kombucha on tap, snacks, a games area and soundproof meditation room.

Mr Harper recalls selling fruit juice at the local market to earn money before starting a computer repair business as a teenager. He later developed a credit payment platform before teaming up with Mr Goldman to trade bitcoin.

Mr Goldman was a computer coding whiz before he could ride a bike, a skill that stood him in good stead as crypto trading took off.

FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the world, collapsed in November. That platform, run by Sam Bankman-Friend, was using billions of dollars of money deposited by customers to pay for trades at an affiliated business, known as Alameda Research, with the undisclosed loans leading to large withdrawals and a funding crunch.

The dramatic collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has impacted almost 30,000 Aussies who are missing “very significant” sums of money, according to FTX Australia’s administrators, with concerns the funds in accounts had no protections.

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told former employees he is “deeply sorry” about the implosion of his crypto exchange – but continued to point the finger at the company’s bankruptcy filing, insisting that he could have saved the platform if given enough time.

Screenshot from the app Swyftx.