The cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk has reportedly laid off 45% of its editorial staff, or about 20 people, ahead of its parent company Digital Currency Group Inc.’s plans to sell a stake in the company to strategic investors.

The layoffs came to light from in memo viewed by The Block, a media company and competitor to CoinDesk, in which the company’s chief executive, Kevin Worth, addressed the upcoming workforce reduction, saying that it would be part of the upcoming sale.

“This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk Inc.,” Worth wrote. He added that a meeting will be held later today to address the upcoming layoffs and who it will affect at the company.

“The purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone that today several roles, predominantly in our media team, were impacted by a reduction in force,” Worth wrote. “This is an incredibly difficult message to send to everyone over email and yet I also wanted everyone at CoinDesk to know as soon as possible what is happening today.”

The total number of people laid off reportedly affects approximately a 16% cut to the total workforce for the whole company, according to a source cited by The Block.

CoinDesk, which launched in 2013, was acquired by DCG in 2016 for $50,000 and generated about $50 million in revenue last year from online advertising as well as from its crypto markets index and live events.

However, because of an ongoing “crypto winter” affecting the markets and bankruptcies hitting crypto lenders in the wake of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX Trading Ltd., caused DCG subsidiary crypto lender Genesis Global Trading Inc. to file for bankruptcy. The company also closed its institutional trading unit TradeBlock and shuttered its wealth management division HQ after the slump in the crypto markets in January.

This led DCG to hire the investment bankers at Lazard Ltd. to assist with exploring the potential full or partial sale of CoinDesk in January. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that DCG was close to formalizing a deal with an investor group led Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital, a private investment firm focused on blockchain technology, and Peter Vessenes of Capital6, a venture capital firm. The deal would sell a stake in CoinDesk to the investment group for approximately $125 million.

According to the terms of the deal, DCG would retain a stake in the media, events and indexes business as a part of the agreement. Sources close to the deal also said CoinDesk’s management would also stay in place. The deal is expected to close shortly.

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