Crypto.com CEO announces 12% layoffs targeting 'roles that do not adapt in our new world'

• Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek announced a 12% layoff, citing the integration of "enterprise-wide AI."
• Non-adopters will "immediately fail," and slow-moving companies will be "left behind," Marszalek wrote on X.
• He joins a growing list of CEOs citing AI as a reason for layoffs, including Block's Jack Dorsey.

The tech layoffs keep coming — and CEOs keep pointing to AI as the driving factor.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek announced a 12% layoff on Thursday. Those affected, he wrote, had "roles that do not adapt in our new world."

"We are joining the list of companies integrating enterprise-wide AI," Marszalek wrote on X. "Companies that move immediately and pair the best AI tools with top-performers will achieve a level of scale and precision that was previously impossible. This is where we must go."

For Marszalek, the AI question was existential for companies. He wrote that non-adopters will "immediately fail" and that slow movers will be "left behind."

A Crypto.com spokesperson confirmed that all affected team members had been notified, and that the company was continuing to "prioritize resources around key growth areas and drive efficiencies across our business."

Crypto.com previously cut 20% of its workforce in 2023, citing damaged trust in the crypto industry following the collapse of FTX. The company also cut jobs in 2022 during a market slump.

Marszalek joins a slew of executives pointing the finger at AI when announcing job cuts.

When Block cut about 40% of its staff in February, CEO Jack Dorsey said that a "significantly smaller team using the tools we're building can do more and do it better." Some laid-off Block employees told Business Insider that they were big AI users — but that didn't save them from the chopping block.

The software company Atlassian also cut 1,600 jobs in March, roughly 10% of its global workforce. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes described the cuts as a repositioning for the "AI era."

Is AI really to blame? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has complained that many companies are engaging in "AI washing," or blaming the tech for layoffs the company would still need to do otherwise.

While Marszalek cuts spending on labor, he's spending on new AI business opportunities. He spent $70 million on the domain AI.com.