The San Francisco-based company has laid off 26 employees in an effort to go public despite banking challenges.
Chia Network Inc., the company behind the Chia blockchain, cut 26 “positions” as it still awaits an initial public offering.
In an announcement from X on Tuesday, October 3, the company said the move was made due to a “challenging funding environment” caused by the crypto winter, industry skepticism and the banking crisis.
“We cut costs across the organization, cut budgets, and faced a black swan when our sponsor went under.”
Chia Network Inc.
The move comes after Chia lost its banking partner, Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, which collapsed in March 2023. Chia Chief Executive Officer Gene Hoffman said the company had already secured a new banking relationship for its IPO, but did not name the financial institution. .
In April 2023, Chia Network Inc. has filed confidential IPO documentation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is unclear how long the review process will take, given that Chia has changed its banking partner. Hoffman says the company expects someone like us to take “a little longer than average to get through the SEC.”
Founded in 2017 by American computer programmer Bram Cohen, also known as the author of the BitTorrent protocol, Chia Network is a blockchain with support for smart contracts, written in a programming language called Chialisp. The network uses a consensus algorithm called “space-time proof”, which allows network participants to “farm” XCH, the Chia network’s native token.
