Binance has confirmed that is has begun a round of layoffs. It follows an earlier scoop by Chinese reporter Colin Wu, who operates Wu Blockchain, a blockchain-focused Twitter account.
Several sources had confirmed with Wu Blockchain that the crypto exchange has begun letting people go from its 8,000-strong workforce.
However, the full number of redundancies still remains unclear.
In the tweet, Wu Blockchain added: “The compensation plan will be formulated according to different situations in different places. However, some departments are still continuing to recruit. The layoffs may be related to the poor overall market and the large expansion before.”
Binance replies
Binance has since responded to the reports, via The Block, with: “We periodically review how we can best allocate our talent to the right teams with the right resources. And sometimes, this inevitably leads to letting go of some employees who might not be performing well or who might not be the right cultural fit.
“This is not a case of rightsizing, but rather, reevaluating whether we have the right talent and expertise in critical roles, and therefore we will still be seeking to fill hundreds of open roles. This will include looking at certain products and business units to ensure our resources are allocated properly to reflect the evolving demands of users and regulators.”
At the Crypto Finance Conference in Switzerland earlier this year, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao discussed a hiring spree and plans to up the number of staff by between 15% and 30%.
In March, the exchange had previously said it was not planning to cut staff, and was instead looking to fill 500 roles by the end of June.
At the time of writing, Binance’s BNB coin – the fourth-biggest crypto in the market – is trading at $306.12, down 2.21% in the past 24 hours.
