Utopia Labs, a provider of crypto payments and stablecoin on- and off-ramps for crypto companies, announced on Monday that it would wind down its core product on November 6. Shortly after, Utopia CEO Kaito Cunningham confirmed that a round of layoffs took place last week.

Data Lead Chris Lepensky wrote on X that he was part of the cuts “along with the majority of employees.”

Cunningham did not immediately respond to Unchained for comment.

The news comes about 16 months after Utopia raised $23 million in a Paradigm-led funding round in June 2022.

According to its announcement, the San Francisco- and Vancouver-based Utopia Labs is slowly turning off its core product, which helps move on-chain funds to off-chain counterparties. The startup, which came out of stealth in 2021, has already turned off gasless transactions and engineering won’t be responding to any bugs. The product will remain available until the end of the month. All services will be turned off on November 6.

Still, Cunningham insists that the company is not shutting down, but rather is moving in a new direction. “For the supporters of Utopia — we’re not shutting down the company, rather, moving away from our existing product and our existing direction,” wrote Cunningham in the announcement post. “I’m more optimistic about crypto than I ever have been, and I’m excited to share the direction we’re taking with Utopia over the next few months.”