Bankless reportedly axes most of team in silence as co-founder declares ‘end of first era’

Bankless is facing backlash after reportedly laying off most of its staff without a public announcement, even as co-founder Ryan Sean Adams declared the “end” of the media brand’s first era on X.

According to ChainCatcher, citing posts on X, crypto community member @0x_Lucas said Bankless has “allegedly laid off most of its team members,” claiming the media brand has not issued a public statement or expressed gratitude to help affected employees find new roles. In his posts, 0x_Lucas criticized the founders for continuing to publish unrelated content while remaining silent about the cuts, arguing that Bankless owed at least a basic acknowledgement and support to the people it had just let go.

At the same time, Bankless co‑founder Ryan Sean Adams posted that “the first era of Bankless has ended,” describing the moment as the conclusion of his six‑year collaboration with co‑host David Hoffman exploring crypto, DeFi and Ethereum. Adams’ remarks, shared in a reflective X thread, framed the change as a generational shift rather than a straightforward downsizing, emphasizing how far the show had come since its early days and hinting at a new, undefined chapter.

Bankless itself has not issued an official statement confirming or denying the reported layoffs, nor has it published a blog post or newsletter addressing the alleged restructuring as of publication time. Episodes continue to appear in the Bankless podcast feed, and the main Bankless site has instead focused on regular content such as its recent “17 Trends for Crypto’s 2026” piece, giving the impression of business as usual even as rumors of cuts spread.

X backlash over silence and “unrelated content”

The anger from former staff and community members is not about the existence of layoffs per se—media and crypto firms have been shedding staff for two years—but about how Bankless appears to be handling them.
In his posts, 0x_Lucas accused the founders of “not even bothering” to publicly thank or spotlight the departing team, arguing that a brand built on community owed its people more than private emails and quiet removals from internal tools.

He also called out what he described as “unrelated” posting from the founders, criticizing the decision to ship new content and personal reflections while staying silent about job losses and declining to use their platform to highlight affected employees for potential employers. That critique resonated on X, where users contrasted Bankless’ coverage of past industry layoffs—including pieces on Binance, Consensys and other firms—with its apparent unwillingness to subject itself to similar scrutiny.

The episode lands amid a broader wave of crypto and tech layoffs in 2026, from Coinbase’s latest cuts to ongoing staff reductions across exchanges, trading firms and infrastructure startups. For a brand that leaned heavily into “community” rhetoric and sought to position itself as the narrative voice of DeFi, the optics of a quiet cull amplified by disgruntled insiders is reputationally damaging, regardless of the balance sheet rationale.

If the reports are accurate, Bankless has effectively amputated much of the team that turned a podcast into a broader media operation—writers, producers, editors and ops staff who helped build newsletters, video content and research products around the core show. In practical terms, that likely means a narrower focus on the flagship podcast and select high‑leverage projects, with less capacity for daily news, deep‑dive analysis or side ventures.

More broadly, the Bankless saga underlines how fragile crypto media businesses remain even late in this cycle. Ad revenue is volatile, sponsor budgets are tied to token prices and trading volumes, and the collapse of easy VC money has left many outlets exposed when traffic or sponsorships dip. As covered in prior crypto.news reporting on crypto media layoffs and creator‑driven brands, projects built around personalities rather than institutions often end up treating everyone else as expendable when the macro turns.

Until Bankless issues a formal statement, the full story will remain partly speculative. But the core facts—that a co‑founder has publicly declared the “end of the first era,” that credible insiders allege most of the team is gone, and that there has been no transparent communication to the audience—paint a clear enough picture: whatever comes next, it will not be the same Bankless that helped narrate the last bull market.