Max Levchin, the CEO of buy-now-pay-later firm Affirm, has confirmed that they are going to be shutting down their “Affirm Crypto Program” amid dampening shopper spending and a altering macroeconomic setting.

The CEO released a letter to shareholders on Feb. 8 alongside a 19% workers lower. He cited unsure macroeconomic circumstances and the necessity to offset some liabilities on the agency’s stability sheet as the 2 major causes behind the choice:

“In a interval of elevated financial uncertainty, we’re doubling down on our core companies, delaying tasks with much less sure income timelines, and aligning our working bills with income. Concurrent with lowering our workforce, we’re sunsetting a number of initiatives, equivalent to Affirm Crypto.”

The agency’s chief monetary officer Michael Linford mentioned the choice was made to fulfill profitability objectives.

“We’ve taken decisive actions to scale back bills. We imagine our price base is now appropriately sized to fulfill our profitability objectives whereas nonetheless supporting our product roadmap and long-term progress ambitions,” he mentioned.

Affirm is a millennial-facing funds service supplier just like Afterpay which permits clients to buy a product on-line and pay later.

The agency launched the “Affirm Crypto Program” in late 2021 close to crypto’s market peak when it partnered with Bitcoin funds platform NYDIG to course of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions and supply a crypto account for Affirm customers.

This system enabled customers to arrange a scheme the place month-to-month curiosity accrued from a person’s financial savings account can be routinely transformed into BTC.

Nonetheless, Affirm famous its cryptocurrency program will formally shut on Mar. 31, according to the Affirm web site:

“On March 2, 2023, the flexibility to buy bitcoin by the Affirm app will finish. We will probably be discontinuing the Affirm Cryptocurrency Program on March 31, 2023.

“Any bitcoin in your account when this system ends will probably be offered at CME CF Bitcoin Reference Price (BRR) as of 4:00 p.m. London Time, and the sale proceeds will probably be deposited into your Affirm Financial savings account,” the word added.

The shutdown is after all part of a bigger workers cleanout for the San Francisco-based lending platform.Levchin mentioned the 19% discount in its workforce took impact right this moment.

In a Feb. 8 note to workers, Levchin shouldered the blame by stating that he acted too slowly to actions from the U.S. Federal Reserve:

“All the pieces modified in mid-2022. Over the past three quarters, the Fed elevated its benchmark charge at an unprecedented tempo. This has already dampened shopper spending and elevated Affirm’s price of borrowing dramatically. The foundation explanation for the place we’re right this moment is that I acted too slowly as these macroeconomic adjustments unfolded.”

Roughly 2,593 people declare to be employed at Affirm, in line with present figures from LinkedIn.

This implies about 500 folks had been doubtless impacted by right this moment’s announcement.

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Cointelegraph reached out to Affirm to learn how many workers associated to its crypto initiative had been impacted, nonetheless, no extra info was shared.

The CEO did nonetheless state within the letter that he expects to maintain the present headcount to stay primarily flat for the foreseeable future.

The value of Affirm’s inventory, tickered AFRM, has fallen 19.1% in after-hours buying and selling within the NASDAQ, according to Google Finance.