Bitwise laid off about 14% of its employees this week. At first glance, this news doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy. But in the current crypto space, it’s actually pretty interesting: Crypto is becoming more like traditional finance, yet crypto companies don’t necessarily need to keep getting bigger. During past bull markets, the industry loved to compare who raised more funds, who expanded faster, who had the bigger office, and who hired the most people. It was almost like growing a company from 100 employees to 500 was a sign of success in itself. But this time around, more and more companies are realizing: assets under management can grow, products can increase, and the money managed can multiply, but the number of employees doesn’t necessarily need to grow alongside. Especially as AI continues to boost efficiency in research, customer service, development, and operations, the next wave of truly profitable crypto companies might not be the ones with the most employees. It might even be the opposite. The crypto space used to love talking about one term: Scale up. In the future, another term might become more popular: Revenue per employee. After all, during a bull market, the easiest things to inflate—besides valuations—are company directories.