Binance “is not planning any layoffs” and is working to fill 500 job vacancies in the first half of the year
The popular cryptocurrency exchange is not planning “any imminent layoffs” and is instead working to fill another 500 job vacancies by the end of June, according to a Binance spokesperson.
The said comments came despite a spike in layoffs for cryptocurrency firms in January. In a statement, a Binance representative said:
“Starting today, we will work to fill more than 500 job vacancies by the end of the first half of the year (…) and we are not planning any imminent layoffs.”
The spokesperson was responding to a request for clarification from Cointelegraph on March 1 regarding information it received about possible layoffs at the cryptocurrency exchange, but recent comments seem to completely refute the speculation.
At the time of this writing, I have Binance list consisted of 463 A page of job vacancies that includes many roles in business development, communications, customer support, and engineering, to name a few.
In January, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the company was planning a hiring wave for 2023, increasing its headcount by 15% to 30%, according to a report by CNBC on January 11.
The spokesperson said that the company has employed more than 600 people since the beginning of 2023.
According to CoinGecko, 84.8% of cryptocurrency company layoffs in January were due to crypto exchanges downsizing, including Coinbase, Huobi, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, and Luno.
Coinbase announced that it would cut its staff by about 950 on January 10, while Crypto.com announced on January 13 that it would cut its workforce by about 500.
Related articles: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand to see Binance’s balance sheets
This has been considered by some to be Binance, similar to Arcaneone of the “winners” of the year 2022, after the fall of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the start of bitcoin trading (BTC) without any fees, which led to its acquisition of a large part of the market.
On the other side of the spectrum, the exchange has seen intense scrutiny recently over the alleged mix-up of $1.8 billion in funds, with some likening it to the actions of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Binance used $1.8 billion in customer funds for its own purposes, similar to what FTX did
Here we go again
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) February 28, 2023
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to respond to the allegations, describing them as a “FUD” and claiming they were the exchange’s practices.
It is worth noting that this year has seen a difficult start for the cryptocurrency sector, with at least 14 companies and nearly 3,000 jobs lost in January before layoffs of 570 employees in February.
Despite all this, the scales could tip, thanks to the increase in the market value of cryptocurrencies, which has reached more than 34% since the beginning of 2023 until now, according to CoinMarketCap, as other companies, such as the USDC issuer, Circle, are planning to to start a wave of recruitment.
