The crypto industry has the urge to purge amid the prolonged bear market. The latest victim is ETCDEV, a major Ethereum Classic development team that launched in 2016.
Igor Artamonov, the founder and chief technology officer of ETCDEV, announced that the group is shutting down due to lack of funds.
“As is publicly known, we have struggled with funding our operation in the last few weeks,” Artamonov wrote on Twitter.” This was partially due to the market crash, combined with a cash crunch in the company.”
Unfortunately ETCDEV cannot continue to work in the current situation and has to announce shutdown of our current activities pic.twitter.com/N6xWnpBNJJ
— ETCDEV (@etcdev) December 3, 2018
Artamonov noted that several attempts to find alternative sources of short-term funding proved futile.
The disheartening message comes a week after the Russian software developer lamented that many startups are stumbling into cash crunches.
“As everyone knows, we are going through really tough times,” Artamonov wrote in a Nov. 27 Medium post. “Markets are crashing and startups are running out of money. That’s a big problem for most of the companies in our space and that includes ETCDEV, of course.”
Ethereum Classic: ‘Keep Calm and Build On’
Six hours after Igor Artamonov’s announcement, the verified Twitter account of Ethereum Classic underscored that just because ETCDEV went under, that does not mean that Ethereum itself is going anywhere.
“Keep Calm, and Build On,” Ethereum Classic exhorted.
Ethereum Classic is not ETCDEV
Ethereum Classic is IOHK, ETC Co-op, ETC Labs, ETCDEV, and a litany of volunteers.
Keep Calm, and Build On. https://t.co/J4IYvC906j
— Ethereum Classic (@eth_classic) December 3, 2018
Like Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, Ethereum Classic has suffered a massive sell-off amid the current crypto downturn. That, in turn, has led to a devastating fallout in the nascent industry.
Just last week, Steemit — the decentralized social media platform — announced that it was laying off 70% of its employees, as CCN reported.
Ned Scott, the founder and CEO of Steemit, said the company’s bullish market projections from earlier this year fell abysmally short of expectations due to the recent crash.
“While we were building up our team over the last months, we had been relying on projections of basically a higher bottom for the market,” Scott noted. “Since that’s no longer there, we’ve been forced to lay off more than 70% of our organization.”
ConsenSys Streamlines Business, Cuts Costs
Earlier this week, Ethereum giant ConsenSys announced that it was restructuring as part of a move to streamline its business amid the crypto bear market, as CCN reported.
In a company-wide letter to employees, ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin — the co-founder of Ethereum — said the group needs to cut down on costs, eliminate underperforming projects, and focus on creating tangible value with positive returns on investments.
“We must retain, and in some cases regain, the lean and gritty startup mindset that made us who we are,” Lubin wrote.
Ethereum Giant ConsenSys Tightens Belt, Will Axe Underperforming Projects https://t.co/ba5AFx73FB
— CCN (@CryptoCoinsNews) December 3, 2018
As the industry flails through an unexpected crypto winter, many bulls remain unfazed, pointing out that the market — like life itself — is cyclical. So everyone needs to calm down and get a grip.
Barry Silbert, the founder of Digital Currency Group, said the market’s dramatic recent fluctuations are the inevitable growing pains that occur in any new industry.
Silbert: Crypto Prices Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Silbert said you have to look back at past bubbles and corrections to gain perspective, as CCN reported.
“We’re 5, 6, 7, times through this now,” he said. “The first couple of times you see your balance sheet drop by 80 percent, it’s kind of rough on the stomach. By the third or fourth time, you get used to it. Now we view this as a fantastic opportunity.”
Silbert noted that game-changing disruptions are happening behind the scenes that are not reflected in hourly bitcoin price changes.
“What’s happening behind the scenes is companies are being built to create infrastructure to enable the on-boarding of a whole new category of investors,” Silbert said. “That’s the institutional investors. So behind the scenes, nobody has slowed down.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock.
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