Meme Stock's Revenge: Robinhood Lays Off 25% of its Staff

The popular stock trading platform Robinhood, made infamous during the meme stock craze, is reportedly laying off about a quarter of its staff, according to company CEO Vlad Tenev.

The Verge reports that in a recent blog post, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev revealed that the company is laying off almost a quarter of its staff. Tenev wrote in the post: “As part of a broader company reorganization into a General Manager (GM) structure, I just announced that we are reducing our headcount by approximately 23%. While employees from all functions will be impacted, the changes are particularly concentrated in our operations, marketing, and program management functions.”

Robinhood Chief Product Officer Aparna Chennapragada will also reportedly be stepping down from her post, according to a recent SEC filing. However, Chennapragada will reportedly “remain employed in an advisory role to the CEO or his designee through January 2, 2023.”Chennapragada left Google in March 2021 to join Robinhood.

The announcement comes shortly after Robinhood released its Q2 2022 earnings information a day earlier than scheduled. The company reported total revenue of $318 million over the three months, 44 percent lower than the same period in 2021.

Robinhood announced in April that it planned to cut 9 percent of its full-time staff, but “this did not go far enough,” according to Tenev. The company hired staff assuming that the increased trading following events such as the meme stock debacle in which the company became a villain to investors in GameStop and other companies, and bullish cryptocurrency markets would continue into 2022, but the recent “crypto-winter” that has resulted in a huge crash in cryptocurrency price is having an effect on the company.

Employees affected by the layoffs will be able to stay at the company through October 1st at their regular pay and benefits as well as a severance package, according to Tenev.