Robinhood announced it was cutting 23% of its workforce, its second round of layoffs this year

Stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) is laying off 780 employees, or about 23% of its workforce, in a further effort to streamline costs, BlockBeats reported on Aug 3. Aparna Chennapragada, its chief product officer, is stepping down from his post effective today, according to a filing. The company expects to incur charges related to cash restructuring and employee severance and benefit costs of about $30 million to $40 million, its second round of layoffs this year. On April 27, Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood, announced that he would lay off about 9% of his full-time employees, BlockBeats previously reported. Throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, the company experienced a period of "high growth" driven by Novel Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, low interest rates, and government fiscal stimulus, Tenev said. During that time, the number of employees increased nearly sixfold, from 700 to nearly 3,800. This rapid growth resulted in duplicate jobs and positions, so the decision to cut jobs had to be made. Robinhood has more than $6 billion in cash on its balance sheet and is still accelerating product development in 2022.