Sirin Labs Fires a Quarter of its Workforce After Unexpectedly Low Blockchain Phone Sales

Sirin Labs, the company located in Israel that launched the blockchain phone called Finney, has fired 25% of its employees. During a conversation with Globes, the company explained that they had to cut 15 of its 60 employees due to unexpectedly low phone sales.

Sirin Labs Cuts Its Staff

The new device released to the market started to be shipped as soon as in November 2018. It offered some interesting features for the crypto space, including a cold wallet, which is located on the same phone. Moreover, they also offer a separated processor that includes an LCD screen for security.

As per Globes, Sirin Labs refuted that they were not paying the staff in the last months. The company explained that they paid March salaries and they will also be paying the salaries for April.

One of the possible reasons why the company is not selling the number of phones that it was expecting is due to the fact that many other blockchain-based phones are being released to the market as well. HTC has also launched the EXODUS phone at the end of 2018.

Samsung has also decided to add some crypto and blockchain functionalities to its flagship phone called Samsung Galaxy S10. The phone is currently being sold since the beginning of March and it includes a crypto wallet, a digital signing application and more.

It is worth mentioning that the founder of Sirin Labs, Moshe Hogeg, was accused by a Chinese investor for misappropriating some cryptocurrencies that he invested in the market prediction platform Stox. Due to this situation, the platform ceased its activity in Israel and fired all the employees it had.

This is not the first time that there is a company laying off employees in recent times. Indeed, the bear market has affected several crypto projects in 2018. One of the largest companies in the crypto space, ConsenSys, has decided to cut 13% of its staff to remain operative in the market. Moreover, the firm announced that they were going to be focusing on companies and startups that were closer to release their products.