Dune Analytics is cutting about a quarter of its workforce, letting go of roughly 37 employees as the blockchain data platform pivots toward institutional clients and AI-powered tools, CEO Fredrik Haga confirmed this week. The layoffs affect around 25% of Dune's roughly 150-person staff, according to the company's LinkedIn profile. Haga framed the cuts as a strategic refocusing, not a sign of financial distress, noting the company remains well-capitalized.
Why the cuts are happening now
Dune has been known for letting crypto enthusiasts query on-chain data for free, but the business side is shifting. Haga said the company is doubling down on enterprise customers and building AI tools that let non-technical users create data workflows without writing code. One of those tools is the Model Context Protocol, which Dune sees as a way to open up its platform to a wider audience. The layoffs are meant to align headcount with that narrower focus.
The timing isn't great for the broader industry. Dune's cuts are part of a wave that has seen over 5,000 jobs eliminated across major crypto firms so far in 2026. And it's not just crypto — the wider US tech sector has already shed nearly 109,000 jobs at 137 companies this year, per Layoffs.fyi. Dune is far from alone in tightening up.
What Dune is betting on
The company's future hinges on AI. Haga is betting that tools like the Model Context Protocol will make Dune indispensable to analysts who don't know SQL but still need to pull blockchain data for reports or dashboards. That's a bet a lot of crypto data firms are making right now — automate the query layer, sell the insights to institutions.
For now, Dune isn't saying which teams were hit hardest by the cuts, or whether any product lines are being shelved. What is clear: the company is smaller, leaner, and pointing squarely at the enterprise and the AI assistant that can talk to its databases.
