2026's fintech layoffs get discussed like a standalone crisis, but this is the third distinct wave since 2022, and each one has had a different underlying cause. Knowing which kind of cycle you're in changes what actually comes next, for hiring, for pay, and for which roles get cut first.
2022-2023: the crypto winter
The first wave was collapse-driven. Crypto firms cut roughly 9,500 jobs through 2022 alone, and January 2023 alone accounted for 41 percent of that entire year's total as the damage kept compounding. Coinbase cut 20 percent of its workforce (about 950 people) in January 2023, on top of 2,110 already cut since June 2022. Kraken cut 30 percent (roughly 1,100 people). Crypto.com cut about 20 percent (700 to 900 people). Celsius cut 150, BlockFi cut 250, and FTX collapsed outright. The trigger was straightforward: crashing crypto prices, rising interest rates, and the fallout from FTX's collapse pulling confidence and deposits out of the whole sector at once.
2023: the SVB shock
Silicon Valley Bank's collapse in March 2023 wasn't a fintech layoff event in itself, but it rattled the startup banking relationships a lot of fintechs depended on and added a second layer of caution to hiring across the sector for the rest of that year. The damage was more about frozen hiring and deferred funding rounds than direct headcount cuts.
2026: a different kind of cut
The current wave looks nothing like 2022's. PayPal cut 4,760 roles (20 percent of its workforce) despite beating Q1 revenue estimates. Block cut more than 4,000 roles (close to 40 percent) the same quarter it raised its full-year guidance. Coinbase cut 700 (14 percent) citing AI acceleration, not distress. Robinhood, Intuit, and Apex Fintech all followed with cuts of their own. These aren't companies in crisis, they're profitable, growing businesses restructuring around smaller AI-augmented teams. That's a fundamentally different signal than a company cutting staff because its business model just broke.
What repeats every cycle
One pattern holds across all three waves: the cuts are never the end of hiring, they're a redistribution of it. Crypto-winter survivors were rehired over 2023 and 2024 into different roles than the ones cut. The same thing is already visible in 2026's data: several of the companies making the deepest AI-driven cuts, including Robinhood, Block, and Coinbase, are simultaneously running some of the highest-volume AI and machine-learning hiring in the sector.
Bottom line
A layoff headline alone doesn't tell you whether a company is shrinking or reshaping. Check Finjobsly's company profiles for actual hiring velocity before you rule an employer out, and set up job alerts for the companies you're tracking so you see the rehire wave as it starts, not months later. For the specific companies hiring for AI roles right now, including several also cutting elsewhere, see which fintechs are actually hiring for AI roles, and for the full picture on 2026's cuts, see Fintech Layoffs 2026: Record Job Cuts.