Amazon is laying off roughly 200 employees in its North America stores division, the company confirmed.

The core retail business, which Amazon also refers to as its stores division, encompasses a wide range of divisions, including its private label brands, Prime membership program, and consumables business.

“We’ve adjusted parts of our North America Stores team because we believe this structure will better enable us to deliver on our priorities,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “As part of these changes, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles, and we’re committed to supporting affected employees through their transition.”

The layoffs included employees in the fashion and fitness business, among others, the spokesperson said. Business Insider earlier reported on the job cuts.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has moved to rein in costs across the company, laying off about 27,000 employees since the beginning of 2022. The bulk of the job cuts came in 2022 and 2023, though they have been ongoing at a smaller scale, and have impacted almost every business across the company’s portfolio.

Amazon has also shuttered some of its more experimental and unprofitable initiatives, including its telehealth offering, a brick-and-mortar delivery program, and try-on service for clothing and shoes.

WATCH: Amazon Prime Video head of global sports on the brand’s ambitions

Cryptocurrencies jumped on Thursday as investor appetite shifted to smaller, higher risk coins ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

XRP and litecoin were among the biggest movers, up 11% and 20%, respectively, according to Coin Metrics. The CoinDesk 20 index, a broad crypto market benchmark, gained 4%.

Meanwhile, bitcoin was up less than 1% at $100,000, following a two-day rally of about 7% this week. Ether fell 3% on Thursday.

“Retail investors [are] looking for opportunities as a new pro-crypto administration gets ready to roll in,” Alexander Blume, CEO of the adviser firm Two Prime Digital Assets, told CNBC. “The Trump administration is a rising tide that will lift all boats in crypto, and altcoins are seeing some early gains from this.”

Trump’s inauguration is slated for Monday.

Trading platform operator Coinbase added 2% and Robinhood rose more than 1%. MicroStrategy, which trades as a bitcoin proxy, was also up more than 1%.

“The first 50 days of Trump’s presidency will determine bitcoin’s trajectory in 2025,” said Gracy Chen, CEO of crypto exchange Bitget. “The crypto market’s expectations for his inauguration and first steps as president are extremely high, which is confirmed by the sensitivity of crypto market prices to statements and appointments made by him in the fourth quarter of 2024.”

During his campaign, Trump promised to install a crypto advisory council in his first 100 days in office and replace Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, who became a notable adversary of the industry during his tenure. The CoinDesk 20 advanced 98% in the one month following the November election. In that same period, bitcoin posted a 46% gain.

Another thing driving the action in small-cap cryptocurrencies is the possibility that the government’s “expected strategic reserve may include other ‘American’ cryptocurrencies,” like XRP and the Solana token, Blume said.

“This is unlikely, [but] it comes as a surprise and is fueling speculators to buy the coins,” he said. “The best long-term value for investors will still be in bitcoin.”

Trump has also promised to establish favorable regulation to encourage domestic “made in the USA” bitcoin mining and launch a strategic national bitcoin stockpile. Investors expect volatility in the flagship cryptocurrency this year, with bitcoin stuck in a tug of war between investors’ concerns about rising inflation under Trump and their optimism over the his pro-crypto leadership.

LONDON — Freetrade, a British rival to popular stock trading app Robinhood, said Thursday that it’s been acquired by online investing platform IG Group.

The deal values Freetrade at £160 million ($195 million) — a 29% discount to its last valuation. The startup said that it would continue to operate as a commercially standalone entity under its own brand.

Founded in 2016, Freetrade garnered popularity among mainly younger, more inexperienced traders in the U.K. with its zero-commission trading platform.

The app initially began by offering equities but later expanded to roll out trading in exchange-traded funds, savings products and government bonds.

In pandemic times, Freetrade was riding high on a retail trader frenzy. The app benefited heavily from GameStop “short squeeze” in early 2021, when traders on a Reddit forum for retail investors piled into the stock and caused it to rally in price.

Short-selling refers to the practice of an investor borrowing an asset and then selling it on the open market with the expectation of repurchasing it for less money in future for a profit.

However, worsening macroeconomic conditions in 2022 and 2023 hit Covid high-fliers like Freetrade hard — and in 2023, Freetrade completed a crowdfunding round at a valuation of £225 million down 65% from the £650 million it was worth previously.

The deal is a potential signal for further consolidation coming to the wealth technology industry. It comes after Hargreaves Lansdown was acquired for £5.4 billion by a consortium of investors including private equity giant CVC Group.

Viktor Nebehaj, CEO and co-founder of Freetrade, described the takeover as a “transformative deal that recognizes the significant value that Freetrade has created.”

“Together with IG Group’s significant resources and backing, this is an exciting opportunity to accelerate our growth and delivery of new products and features,” he added.

Freetrade said the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals, adding that it expects it will close the deal later this year.