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Ava Labs cuts 12% of staff to ‘reallocate resources’ toward expansion

November 7, 2023 Coin Telegraph

AVA Labs

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer however stressed the firm is well-positioned with significant runway and resources at its disposal.

Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche Blockchain, has confirmed it laid off 12% of its employees in a recent wave of staff cuts, citing the need to reallocate its resources.

The firm’s founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer confirmed the news on Nov. 7 after several former Ava Labs employees announced on X (formerly Twitter) they had been laid off.

“This reduction in force affected 12% of Ava Labs, and allows us to reallocate resources to double down on the growth of our firm and the Avalanche ecosystem,” Gün Sirer said.

Gün Sirer acknowledged that bear markets can be tough to navigate but iterated Ava Labs is well-positioned with significant runway and resources at its disposal.

Today we parted ways with some of our Ava Labs team members. We are no longer a 12 person startup, but we strive to capture the speed and energy of a small, nimble team.

This reduction in force affected 12% of Ava Labs, and allows us to reallocate resources to double down on the…
— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) November 7, 2023

Ava Labs has 335 employees, according to LinkedIn, which suggests around 40 people were impacted.

Ava Labs vice president of growth and strategy Garrison Yang hinted that many of the layoffs came from the firm’s marketing team.

In an Oct. 6 post on X, former game growth marketing team-member Zach Manafort was among those revealing he was laid off. His departure comes despite being active in the Avalanche community since 2020.

It looks like my time at @AvaLabs has come to its end. Despite the recent layoffs, my time here has been filled with invaluable experiences and growth.

As I transition forward, I am open to explore opportunities in marketing or operations.

My passion for these fields combined…
— Trading Aloha (@TradingAloha) November 6, 2023

The layoffs came as a surprise to Manafort who thought “things were just getting started.”

Brandon Suzuki, who also previously worked in Ava Labs’ marketing unit, similar confirmed that he was laid off on Oct. 6.

Unfortuantely, I was let go from @AvaLabs this morning. If anyone has resources for web3 marketers, please let me know!
— Brandon Suzuki (@BrandonSuzuki_) November 6, 2023

The most recent round of layoffs comes only days after a 50% staff cut by nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea on Nov. 3.

Neil Dundon, founder of CryptoRecruit, told Cointelegraph that job openings are still hard to come by in the crypto industry, despite a recent uptick in crypto market cap.

“The Crypto market is still very tough unfortunately right now. Money is tight. VC has dried up.”

Dundon said there needs to be more signs pointing to a bull market before there’s any meaningful uptick in hiring again.

“This is how it has always behaved and it’s no different this time around.”

On the other hand, Kevin Gibson and Daniel Adler, the founders of Proof of Search and Cryptocurrency Jobs, both told Cointelegraph that they have seen a slight increase in hiring over the last few weeks.

Gibson attributed this to cryptocurrency firms acting under the impression that they may lose out on the talent pool when market conditions improve in 2024. He added:

“It is still an employer's market so we are encouraging companies to take advantage of this to keep building as it will be very different in 2024.”

Gibson noted that some of these positions were only 2-3 day per week roles as opposed to full-time positions.

Adler shared a similar sentiment:

“As we're approaching the end of the year, teams are doing a final hiring push and following through on their hiring plans and roadmap.”

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Fear of blockchain will have ‘disastrous consequences’ — Ava Labs CEO testimony

June 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

AVA Labs

Gün Sirer says the U.S. “won the first wave of the internet revolution” because it enabled responsible innovation. Now, it must do the same with blockchain.

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer will be calling on United States officials to “nurture” and “support” responsible blockchain innovation, warning that they face “disastrous consequences” if they don't.

Gün Sirer’s comments in defense of what he describes as a “revolutionary technology” is part of a testimony that he is scheduled to give to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on June 13 — the audience will include Chair Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member Maxine Waters and other members in the House Committee.

Gün Sirer’s testimony aims to explain how blockchain can “transform society” by making digital services “more efficient, reliable and accessible to all.”

My written testimony for the House Financial Services Committee hearing on blockchains and the future of digital assets is now public.

You can read it to preview what I’ll say and live stream the hearing at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow here:https://t.co/bv2pWTwCVT https://t.co/dtRlBmuN4F
— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) June 12, 2023

It comes amid a slew of regulatory enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s indicated plans to build an “anti-crypto army.”

But Gün Sirer fears that such action may backfire with “disastrous consequences” on the country’s economy:

“Failure to see the power of blockchain technology – whether due to a lack of understanding or misplaced fears of the technology – will have disastrous consequences.”

He added that a “failure” to provide a “sensible regulatory framework” would not only blowback economic growth but also “make it easier for bad actors to conduct illicit activities.”

I am honored to discuss the need for free, safe, and responsible blockchain innovation in the U.S. before the House Financial Services Committee next Tuesday. I look forward to advocating for the technical and scientific merits of these systems. https://t.co/FUuuXmdrg1
— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) June 9, 2023

The Ava Labs CEO explained that the U.S. “won the first wave of the internet revolution” in the early 2000s because it enabled “responsible freedom to innovate.”

He’s now calling on U.S. officials to “follow the same path” in what he describes as an increasingly “digitally-native world.”

“As we move towards a more digitally-native world, aided by AI, virtual reality, and a work-from-home society, we will have to rely increasingly on digitally-native transfer and programmability of value.”

“Blockchains are the clear technological answer to these needs,” Gün Sirer said, adding that blockchains will one day capture a large share of the world’s economic value:

“The addressable market for digitizing the world's assets and transferring value safely across the internet is greater than the sum of all the value of all existing assets.”

Gün Sirer isn’t the only industry figure to share this view either.

In an interview with CNBC Crypto World on June 8, Chainlink Labs CEO Sergey Nazarov explained that it is “absolutely inevitable" that much of the world’s economic value will soon find its way on-chain.

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Ava Labs founder awarded $3M in crypto defamation suit

May 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

AVA Labs

Emin Gün Sirer, the founder and CEO of Ava Labs, has been awarded millions in damages after an influencer publicly accused him of being part of a Turkish terrorist group in 2021.

Ava Labs founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer has reportedly won a defamation suit against a crypto influencer, awarding him $3 million in damages.

The lawsuit stemmed from claims made in a February 2021 YouTube video by crypto influencer Emre Aksoy linking Sirer to an Islamist group the Turkish government calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Askoy told his large YouTube following that Sirer was a group member, directing them to short the Avalanche (AVAX) token. According to Sirer, the defamation cost him millions and crashed the price of AVAX at the time. The token fell 57% from its $55.51 high on Feb. 11, 2021, to $23.85 by the end of the month.

Aksoy was described as a “marketing expert” that was paid to promote a product competing with Ava Labs, according to the suit. Cointelegraph contacted Emre Aksoy for a comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The founder of blockchain platform Ava Labs can pursue defamation claims against a cryptocurrency marketer and "thought leader" over comments he made on social media. https://t.co/aTpel0gxFf
— Law360 (@Law360) October 27, 2021

According to Law360, on April 28, United States district judge Beth Bloom said Sirer was entitled to $750,000 in general damages for reputational harm. The judge said a prior testimony from Sirer “adequately shows he suffered considerable reputational harm, among other things.”

The judge wrote:

“[The] Plaintiff experienced anxiety and fear during his frequent trips to Turkey because of his justified concern that he would be arrested and detained by the Turkish authorities upon entry as a result of the defendant’s allegations that he was a member of FETÖ.”

Bloom also awarded Sirer $300,000 in “special damages for his increased security costs” and $2 million in punitive damages to “deter the kind of malicious behavior perpetrated by the defendant.”

Ava Labs is the firm behind the Avalanche network, a layer-1 smart contract platform.

Speaking at a blockchain conference on New York City’s Roosevelt Island last week, Sirer commented that the industry could not consider itself mature until regulators can read and audit code.

His comments come amid a broader crypto crackdown in the U.S. where regulators have taken enforcement actions against everything from staking to stablecoins.

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Ava Labs Partners With Amazon Web Services to Accelerate Blockchain Adoption, AVAX Jumps 16%

January 11, 2023 Bitcoin.com

$491B asset manager KKR’s health care fund tokenized on Avalanche

September 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

AVA Labs

To access the fund on the Securitize protocol, investors need to submit their passport, fill out personal and tax information and complete a "liveness check."

Digital asset company Securitize Capital is set to tokenize $491 billion asset management firm KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (HCSG II) on the Avalanche blockchain.

The news was shared by KKR on Sept. 13, with the tokenization of HCSG II being described by the head of Securitize Capital Wilfred Daye as a “significant breakthrough” for individual access to private equity markets.

The tokenization enables investors to own a token representing a share of the $4 billion healthcare-focused fund that invests in 23 North American and European-based companies versed in the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and life sciences sectors.

In order to buy in the HCSG II Fund on the Securitize protocol, investors need to submit their passport, fill out personal and tax information and complete a “liveness check” in order to be reviewed. Investors are also subject to a 0.50% management fee.

Founder and CEO of Ava Labs Emin Gün Sirer said the tokenization of the HCSG II Fund marked a “huge milestone” for the blockchain industry in enabling “real world assets” to move on-chain:

Massive news: exposure to a flagship fund of @KKR_Co, one of the largest institutions in the world, is being tokenized on Avalanche by @Securitize. This is a huge milestone for blockchain by Wall Street and real world assets coming on-chain https://t.co/03iQY8OTpl
— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) September 13, 2022

KKR said on-chain tokenization of real world assets also “lowers investment minimums, improves digital investor onboarding and compliance protocols, and increases potential for liquidity through a regulated alternative trading system.”

Related: Tokenization, Explained

The potential for tokenization to capture a large share of global assets has also been acknowledged by Boston Consultant Group (BCG) and Raiffeisen Bank International’s Blockchain Research Hub.

BCG predicted that $16.1 trillion of illiquid assets will be tokenized by 2030, while Raiffeisen Bank International’s Blockchain Research Hub predicted last year that most securities will be tokenized by 2030.

Securitize Capital operates the Securitize protocol, which was integrated onto the Avalanche blockchain in Dec. 2020 and is focused on “reinventing private capital markets by delivering trusted end-to-end security token solutions.”

Emin Gün Sirer