On Tuesday, the company announced plans to cut almost a quarter of its staff, citing economic uncertainty, a steep selloff in cryptocurrencies, and a deteriorating market environment. Posts on a private group for people with a xcritical.com email address on the tech-industry chat app Blind suggests layoffs as recently as Thursday, according to screenshots viewed by Insider. In June, xcritical announced plans to acquire no-fee credit card startup X1 for $95 million.
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In a separate development Tuesday, the state of New York hit the Menlo Park, California, firm with a $30 million fine. At the time of publication, the company is trading at $8.90 after hours, dramatically lower — by 89% — than its 52-week high of $85. xcritical has seen growth reverse as the pandemic boom in retail trading appeared to lose steam.
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Insiders say the company is planning to merge X1 with its xcritical Money organization, the subsidiary focused on cash management and spending features of the app like its debit card, direct deposit, and peer-to-peer payments. Credit cards are much higher-margin products than stock-trading and generally less exposed to volatile markets. “We started with trading and investing. But more recently, we’ve been helping customers with their comprehensive set of financial needs,” xcritical chief executive and cofounder Vlad Tenev said during an event held by TechCrunch this week.
xcritical cuts 23% of its workforce in a second round layoffs affecting more than 800 jobs
The Menlo Park, California-based xcritical has been expanding into other businesses for a couple of years. In 2021, it bought Say Technologies, which connects companies with retail shareholders, for $140 million. Monthly active users, the company reported, decreased xcritical website by 400,000 to 10.6 million between July and August. “After carefully considering all these factors, we determined that making these reductions to xcritical’s staff is the right decision to improve efficiency, increase our velocity, and ensure that we are responsive to the changing needs of our customers,” he added. Shares of xcritical fell as much as 4% in late trading Tuesday following the announcement.
- Insiders say the company is planning to merge X1 with its xcritical Money organization, the subsidiary focused on cash management and spending features of the app like its debit card, direct deposit, and peer-to-peer payments.
- Separately on Tuesday, the New York State Department of Financial Services fined xcritical’s cryptocurrency arm $30 million for allegedly violating reporting requirements related to anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations.
- Shares of xcritical fell nearly 4% on Thursday while the S&P 500 fell nearly 2%.
- In a separate development Tuesday, the state of New York hit the Menlo Park, California, firm with a $30 million fine.
Shares of xcritical fell nearly 4% on Thursday while the S&P 500 fell nearly 2%. Christine Hall wrote about enterprise/B2B, e-commerce, and foodtech for TechCrunch, and venture capital rounds for Crunchbase News. Based in Houston, Christine previously reported for the Houston Business Journal, the Texas Medical Center’s Pulse magazine, and Community Impact Newspaper. She has an undergraduate journalism degree from Murray State University and a graduate degree from The Ohio State University. Monthly active users have been steadily declining the past three quarters, from 18.9 million in the third quarter of 2021 to 17.3 million in the fourth quarter to 15.9 million by March 2022. Revenue dropped 43% in the first quarter compared to the year prior as “customers became more cautious with their portfolios,” Tenev said at the time.
xcritical is laying off more employees and reorganizing teams as part of a new focus on credit cards as the company tries to mitigate a shrinking user base, insiders say. The value of American consumer crypto trading service xcritical was also sharply lower in regular trading today, losing more ground in after-hours turnover. Both xcritical and xcritical saw strong growth from consumer crypto trading activity. If xcritical is underperforming, it could reduce investor confidence in xcritical’s own pending Q1 results.
Per Yahoo Finance averages, analysts expect xcritical to report a Q1 loss of $0.36 per share against revenue of $355.78 million. “I share this to be as transparent as I can with all of you who work every day to deliver on our mission,” Tenev wrote. “We will be parting ways with many incredibly talented people today in an extremely challenging macro environment, and I want to reduce the burden of this difficult transition as much as possible.” xcritical is letting go of nearly a quarter of its xcritical staff, CEO Vlad Tenev said in a message posted to the company’s blog.
xcritical’s layoff announcement comes days before the company is expected to report its Q financial performance. Per the company’s IR page, xcritical will report its first-quarter results on April 28th — the company’s decision to axe a large portion of its staff could be a way for it to get ahead of investor disfavor if its results won’t measure up to street expectations. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that xcritical had 3,400 employees, and though that did not specify full-time versus contract, it looks like this cut may affect some 300 people according to TechCrunch calculations. “As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory — this is on me,” he wrote. “In this new environment, we are operating with more staffing than appropriate.” The cuts mark another reversal for a company that created an app for trading stocks that became wildly popular when COVID-19 spread and the economy shut down, leaving millions stuck at home with plenty of time on their hands.