Robinhood Lays Off 23% of Staff a Day Before Earnings Report

Analysts had predicted a decline in earnings prior to the layoff announcement

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Laid off employees will have the option to stay until Oct. 1, 2022 with full pay and benefits
  • HOOD was trading about 4.5% lower in after-hours trading Tuesday

Robinhood has shed 23% of its staffers, the company said Tuesday — one day ahead of its second-quarter earnings call. 

The cuts are mostly concentrated to the operations, marketing, and program management teams, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev wrote in a blog post. The move comes shortly after the company announced a 9% reduction in headcount in April 2022, citing a decrease in growth. 

[stock_market_widget type=”accordion” template=”chart” color=”#7C2AD5″ assets=”HOOD” start_expanded=”true” display_currency_symbol=”true” api=”yf” chart_range=”6mo” chart_interval=”1wk”]

The impact on the company’s crypto trading business isn’t clear. A spokesperson for the division did not immediately return a request for comment. 

The initial round of cuts “did not go far enough,” Tenev wrote. 

Macro conditions and increasing inflation have contributed to decreased trading activity — leading to lower fee revenue — Tenev said. Additionally, the crypto market’s recent crash has negatively impacted trading volumes and related assets.

“Last year, we staffed many of our operations functions under the assumption that the heightened retail engagement we had been seeing with the stock and crypto markets in the COVID era would persist into 2022,” Tenev said. “In this new environment, we are operating with more staffing than appropriate.”

Laid off employees will receive an email and Slack message, the blog said. Departing staff will have the option to remain employed through Oct. 1, 2022 with full pay and benefits. 

Analysts had already estimated that Robinhood, which went public in 2021 after pioneering a zero-fee trading structure for equities, would miss Wall Street’s consensus growth metrics — before the layoffs were made public. 

The company’s stock traded about 4.5% lower in Tuesday’s after-hours session.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

As Satoshi-era wallets saw over $8 billion worth of BTC on the move, Congress is gearing up for “Crypto Week”

article-image

Bitcoin’s runaway success was partly driven by Slashdot

article-image

Blockworks Research data shows that VC spending is back on the rise after a slow May

article-image

After rejecting a bid from the AI cloud-computing startup last year, Core Scientific agreed to be acquired in a deal expected to close by Q4 2025

article-image

Sponsored

Plume’s collaboration with TRON will unlock cross-chain RWA yield for one of the world’s largest blockchain ecosystems

article-image

Who needs gold when you have taxes?