Eigen Labs Axes 25% of Workforce to Double Down on a16z-Backed EigenCloud Bet

Eigen Labs just made a brutal pivot—slashing a quarter of its team to go all-in on its Andreessen Horowitz-backed EigenCloud project. Because nothing says 'strategic focus' like handing out pink slips before lunch.

The cuts come as Eigen Labs shifts resources to its cloud infrastructure play

The move reeks of VC-driven tunnel vision—sacrificing headcount to chase the next blockchain middleware gold rush. Because when a16z writes a check, you burn the ships.

Is this focus or financial engineering?

Let’s be real: 'Streamlining operations' is corporate-speak for juicing margins ahead of the next funding round. The remaining 75% better hope EigenCloud moons—or they’ll be debugging their resumes next.

Eigen Labs, the blockchain company behind the EigenLayer (EIGEN) protocol that pioneered the crypto restaking feature on the ethereum (ETH) network, has sent home 29 employees, which represents 25 percent of its workforce. The company made the strategic move to reorient and shift its focus to the research and development of EigenCloud.

According to Sreeram Kannan, CEO of Eigen Labs, the impacted employees will be financially assisted to transition their careers. Moreover, the company raised more funds from a16z to restructure its business operations.

“Restructuring our organization and saying goodbye to a number of our teammates, who have given so much to the project, is incredibly painful. This morning, I spoke with impacted team members, shared my immense gratitude for their contributions, and laid out how Eigen Labs is committed to supporting their next chapter with empathy, respect, and concrete resources,” Kannan noted.

In mid-June 2025, a16z purchased an additional $70 million worth of EIGEN tokens to support the development of the EigenCloud product. The EigenCloud platform was developed on top of EigenLayer to offer a unified suite of services including off-chain computation, and data availability. 

EIGEN Price on the Rise

Following the announcement, EIGEN price gained nearly 10 percent in the past 24 hours to trade about $1.16 on Tuesday, July 8, during the mid-North American session. The mid-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $2 billion, recorded a 36 percent rally in its daily average traded volume to about $63M.

The strategic reorganization of the company’s structure and operations will play a crucial role in EIGEN’s price action in the mid and long term. From a technical analysis, EIGEN price has been attempting to regain bullish momentum after being trapped in multi-month correction year-to-date.