That is kinda sad really. I thought of BitPay as the next Google or the next Facebook. The layoffs could be a sign that they are no longer growing and that interest in BTC is starting to shrink. I certainly hope it doesn't turn into merely a fad. Who knows what the future will bring for BTC and maybe there will be a positive effect later on for BitPay.
Whatever the reasons, only three days ago it was espoused that good people were far and few between, thus important to retain them. Something changed over the weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_62Rv7R1jcYOn a side note, BitStamp stated that only 1% of their customer's money was hacked, for the other 99% is in a secure cold wallet. Think about that for a sec. BitStamp is holding ~$500,000,000 USD of other people's money, for they've just declared that it's not theirs.
How is it that there are those who say that we should be responsible for our own bitcoins, but they also declare that the third-party entity, BitStamp, is mmmkay to hold $500M USD worth of bitcoins? Hell, even Tony mentions in the video I linked above that lessons were learnt from Mt Gox's debacle. The only lesson I see learnt is to not let an entity hold $750M USD worth of bitcoins, but only 2/3 that total. The ONLY saving grace is that BitStamp in located in the US, thus there would be some recourse if things go sour.