The Ethereum (ETH) to merge was undoubtedly one of the most historic moments in the crypto industry. However, the upgrade leaned more toward “selling the news” than any profitability. Nevertheless, the merger has increased the importance of validators on the ETH network. One of the biggest validators is stockfish. The merger raised the company’s profile, but it wasn’t as smooth as one might assume.
According to reports, about 25% of Stakefish employees were fired or resigned right after Ethereum’s big move. Among those who are no longer with the company are two senior executives, Head of Strategy and Operations Jun Soo Kim and Head of Protocols Daniel Hwang.
CoinDesk spoke to four former and current employees, who expressed disappointment with the handling of the situation. In all, eight employees were laid off and three left the company just as Stakefish was about to reap major benefits for securing Ethereum’s new miner-free network. According to the employees, the employees were not informed about the end of their employment. They were only notified of the decision a few days before the termination.
At press time, Stakefish had about 2% of everything ETH deployed. In addition, it plays an important validating role in the Cosmos, Polkadot, Polygon and Solana ecosystems.
Has the Ethereum Merger Played a Hand?
Company CEO Chun Wang clarified by saying: “It is normal in a bear market to reduce team size and optimize costs.” He added that only non-technical positions were fired. In addition, he said the company is working on hiring more developers.
Many employees were surprised by the resignation of Jun Soo Kim, the company’s Head of Strategy and Operations. Kim was a potential replacement for CEO Wang and served as interim chief in Kim’s absence. However, during a conversation with CoinDesk, Kim said we left to start his own venture.
Now Stakefish owns nearly 2% of all staked Ethereum. While letting go of communal workers in bear markets, as seen this summer, the timing of Stakefish casts a bit of a shadow over the situation. Letting go of the employees on the day of the merger can give people different ideas. It’s very possible that the company is just trying to cut costs. or the other possibility is that the company may be trying to keep a lion’s share of the profits, if they do come in.
At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $1,350.96, up 7.3% in the past 24 hours.