2TM, the parent company of Brazil's largest crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin, dismisses 80+ employees, or ~12% of its staff; 2TM was valued at $2.1B in July 2021
Mike Millard / The Block :
Context & Ripple Effects
Eleven months after Mercado Bitcoin's parent 2TM raised a $200M Series B from SoftBank Latin America Fund at a $2.1B valuation, the company is reported to have dismissed more than 80 people — roughly 12% of its workforce — though 2TM itself denies the dismissals. The move lands mid-wave across Latin American and global crypto operators: weeks earlier, Mexican exchange Bitso cut 80+ staff alongside e-commerce firm Vtex's ~200-person reduction.
First-order effects
- More than 80 2TM employees are out if the report holds, shrinking the team behind Brazil's largest crypto exchange even as the company publicly disputes the figure.
Second-order effects
- 2TM joins a retrenchment pattern among its 2021-vintage peers — Bitpanda cutting headcount to ~730 from 1,000+, Blockchain.com slashing 25% of its workforce and closing Argentina offices — pressuring other Latin American exchanges to match cost cuts or defend their own valuations.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, exchanges funded at 2021 peak prices face a structural reset: headcount discipline becomes the price of keeping later-stage backing, and regional leaders like Mercado Bitcoin compete on burn rate rather than expansion.
The trend: Crypto exchanges that raised at 2021 peak valuations are converging on double-digit layoffs through 2022-2023, with Latin America's largest players now inside the same cost-cutting cycle as their global peers.