Ethereum Builder ConsenSys Shutters India and Philippines Operations

ConsenSys, the ethereum blockchain development company with over 30 hubs around the globe, has shut down key operations in India and the Philippines, CoinDesk has learned.

ConsenSys chief Joe Lubin informed the teams via email that they would be closed down, people familiar with the situation said.

A member of the seven-person team in India confirmed the closures of the local office and the Philippines operation but referred further questions to the main office in Brooklyn, N.Y., which offered no comment by press time.

The cutbacks follow a round of layoffs late last year that saw about 13 percent of ConsenSys’ then-1,200-person staff let go (it’s down to about 1,000 now). The venture studio grew rapidly during the last crypto bull run when the price of ethereum tokens reached over $1,000 but began refocusing priorities in the depths of crypto winter.

While the India and Philippines operations employed fewer than a dozen people combined, they worked on high-profile initiatives.

ConsenSys India was working on a number of decentralization projects including health care and land titling, not to mention an ambitious education program to foster ethereum coding in the region.

In the Philippines, ConsenSys was helping to drive a blockchain-based interbank payment network, dubbed Project i2i, involving UnionBank. It is unclear what will happen to that project now.

In March, ConsenSys Ventures made an investment of an undisclosed size in Philippines-based cryptocurrency exchange PDAX.