State Street scaling back its DLT developers and looking at new blockchain direction
- The global custodian bank, State Street, is making cuts to its blockchain developer team.
- It is reported that some developers of 100 upwards have been let go by the bank.
State Street, the global custodian bank, has opted to move into a new direction with its blockchain strategy and has made cuts of developer jobs in the process, according to people familiar with the situation said.
It was reported that the bank’s focus is now more tilted towards digital assets such as tokenized stocks and bonds through to cryptocurrencies, rather than the heavy lifting work of re-plumbing front to back office with distributed ledger technology (DLT).
As a result of various cost pressures that are said to be weighing on the Boston-based bank, there has been a dramatic streamlining of the global blockchain team in the past few weeks.
A former State Street engineer said the cuts numbered over 100 blockchain developers. Elsewhere, a second person familiar with the situation said “most of the blockchain team had gone,” and that the number let go was “upwards of 100.” There are now “only a few token people left” from the team, this person said, meaning “token” as in perfunctory, not in the crypto sense.
Author
Ken Chigbo
Independent Analyst
Ken has over 8 years exposure to the financial markets. He started his career as an analyst, covering a variety of asset classes; forex, fixed income, commodities and equities.
