Bitwise shrinks to 155 staff as its index fund bleeds and its staking arm grows

Bitwise Asset Management acquired a staking firm in February and then cut 14% of its jobs in August.

Bitwise bought 50 staking engineers in February

Bitwise finalized its acquisition of Chorus One on February 24. The deal added more than $2.2 billion in staked assets and 50 technology professionals. It extended the firm across more than 30 proof-of-stake networks such as Solana, Avalanche, Sui, and Aptos.

Staking is “one of the most compelling growth opportunities” for clients who hold crypto assets, CEO Hunter Horsley said at the time. He praised Chorus One’s “eight-year track record of doing things the right way.”

Chorus One was consolidated into Bitwise Onchain Solutions, the company’s staking arm. At the time the deal closed, Bitwise said its company-wide headcount was about 200.

Six months later, the company’s headcount is around 155, and before last week it was about 180. Bitwise has cut its headcount by about a quarter since February, and the cut last week accounts for about 25 of those.

The index business shrank faster than staking grew

The net assets of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund, ticker BITW, have declined 48.27% from $1.03 billion to $532.8 million in the first half of 2026, according to a quarterly filing with the SEC.

Investors redeemed $161.2 million and created $3.5 million. Shares outstanding fell 18.97%, meaning money walked out, not just lost value.

Bitcoin’s weight rose from 75.11% to 77.81% as of June 30. A basket sold as ten cryptocurrencies is now more than three quarters one of them. Fees on those assets are used to pay staff.

Horsley confirmed the cut in an emailed statement. The adjustment “equips us well for the ongoing growth we’ve seen this year and expect to continue as crypto further integrates into the global economy,” Horsley said.

CIO Matt Hougan said bitcoin has likely hit the bottom of the bear market because the price has stopped responding to bad news.

He pointed to the Coldcard hack, selling by Strategy, and disappointment over the CLARITY Act. Hougan backed that reading on X hours before the layoffs surfaced on August 12. “It’s true,” he wrote.

It’s true. https://t.co/gIUxUR0Uq4

— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) August 12, 2026

Coinbase laid off about 700 employees, or 14% of its staff, in May as CEO Brian Armstrong pushed an AI-first overhaul focused on smaller teams, Cryptopolitan reported.

BitGo laid off 15% in June, and Polygon Labs is cutting staff for the second time this year.

By late July, 17 major crypto ventures had closed shop, and about 95 in total had shut down operations in 2026, part of what Cryptopolitan called the year of crypto shutdowns.

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