Sources: cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain is closing down its Israel-based R&D center and laying off its 23 employees, amid the cryptocurrency bear market
Bitmaintech Israel, headed by Gadi Glikberg, is a victim of the steep decline in the cryptocurrency market.
Context & Ripple Effects
This closure is the first visible cut in what became a months-long retrenchment at Bitmain. Days later the company confirmed broader layoffs that sources said could reach half its headcount, with some departments eliminated entirely.
The Israel center's fate traces back to structural problems, not just market prices: analysts had already flagged that Bitmain is at heart a mining-chip maker that has not successfully shipped a next-generation chip since 2016, and it later reported a ~$500M net loss for Q3 2018 after booking $1B in profits in the first half of the year.
First-order effects
- Gadi Glikberg's Bitmaintech Israel loses its entire operation — all 23 employees are laid off and the R&D site closes, removing Bitmain's Israeli development footprint outright rather than trimming it.
Second-order effects
- The Israel shutdown presaged the much larger company-wide layoff round confirmed within weeks, signaling that cost cuts were moving from peripheral sites to core operations; by spring, Bitmain had also slashed its own mining capacity, with internal hashpower down 88% month-over-month.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, bear-market squeezes force mining hardware makers to abandon speculative R&D outposts and self-mining first, concentrating the industry on fewer, larger operators — a consolidation dynamic later echoed when Core Scientific moved to shut rigs tied to bankrupt client Celsius Mining.
The trend: Cryptocurrency downturns are pushing mining hardware giants like Bitmain from expansion into rapid contraction of R&D sites, headcount, and self-mining capacity.