Trezor CEO explains crypto wallet maker's layoffs, not blaming AI

The head of Czech hardware crypto-wallet maker Trezor, Matěj Žák, has explained why the company cut almost 15% of its staff despite posting the second-best revenue year in its history — more than a billion crowns. The reason, he says, isn't artificial intelligence but a falling cryptocurrency market and a desire to keep the business profitable.

Trezor is one of the most recognizable brands in the hardware crypto-wallet market, founded by the company SatoshiLabs. A few weeks ago, management made the difficult decision to part ways with around thirty employees — about 15% of the whole team. Matěj Žák is 35, has worked at the company for eight years, and gradually rose to the position of CEO.

“We're in a falling market, a so-called bear market — there's no point fooling ourselves,” Žák admits. At the same time, he stresses there's no financial catastrophe: “We definitely have no problem paying salaries. We have large financial reserves, and behind us is the second-strongest year in the company's history: last year we topped a billion crowns in revenue for the second time.”

Žák specifically notes that Trezor's layoffs have nothing to do with the adoption of artificial intelligence, unlike at many other companies. “We tried very hard to make sure our people understood that in our case it's not about AI at all. A lot of companies, and not just in our industry, blame layoffs on AI, but often that looks more funny than anything,” says the Trezor chief. “We're not hiding anything — we ran into a falling market, and this is above all a management decision.”

The key to understanding Trezor's business is the so-called four-year cycle that the entire cryptocurrency market revolves around. “Honestly, we debate whether this four-year cycle still holds or not. Right now the situation is convincing us that yes, everything is repeating itself again,” Žák explains. In practice, this means that after a booming year, when the price of bitcoin rises along with demand for hardware wallets, a cooldown usually follows, with falling prices and shrinking demand.

The numbers back this up: last October, bitcoin hit an all-time high above 120,000 dollars, and has since lost about half its value, trading around 64,000 dollars this August. The company has already seen the same pattern in previous cycles — Trezor has twice crossed the billion-crown revenue mark: most recently last year, and before that in 2021, when bitcoin was also setting records. Each time, weaker years followed.

Žák doesn't reveal every detail, but the company is being realistic: “We expect the curve to look similar to what we saw after 2021, meaning some decline now awaits us. Our preliminary estimate is that the market will turn upward again in 2029, but of course we'll have to wait for confirmation of the next four-year cycle.” The main reason for the cuts, he says, is the company's wish to stay profitable even in periods when sales aren't as strong.

“We want to be profitable at the operating level year after year. We don't want to go into debt to ourselves. We want a healthy business, because we have no investors at all,” he stresses. Full independence from outside funding has been a core principle of Trezor since its founding. The company's founders, Marek “Slush” Palatinus and Pavol “Stick” Rusnák, refused to compromise on this from the start, so they could keep improving the product and its security without being pressured by investors demanding rapid growth.