As investor interest in digital assets declines, the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange, which just a week ago proposed listing Pi Network, now plans to lay off roughly 20% of its workers.
The announcement supported Justin Sun, the creator of Tron, who had earlier claimed that "structural reform" in Huobi would start soon and be completed by the end of the first quarter.
The planned layoff ratio is about 20%, but it is not implemented now. With the current state of the bear market, a very lean team will be maintained going forward, the personnel optimization aims to implement the brand strategy, optimize the structure, improve efficiency and return to the top three.
-Huobi spokesperson said
The revelation comes nearly a week after journalist Colin Wu revealed on December 30 that there had been layoffs at the bitcoin exchange. Wu recently revealed that Huobi has chosen to pay employees' wages in stablecoins rather than fiat money, which caused concerns from the workforce.
Justin Sun’s Huobi exchange will cancel all year-end bonuses, and will prepare to lay off the team of 1,200 people to 600-800 people, and cut the salaries of senior employees, according to several insiders. Exclusive
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 30, 2022
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, declared that the network has gained 20,000 new members every day on average over the previous three months. As a result, as of late November, the analytics platform CoinGecko classified the exchange as the eighth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of volume. Additionally, he described the restructure as "short-term discomfort" that may ultimately benefit the exchange.
The layoffs follow the demise of FTX and a wave of other bankruptcies last year, which raised concerns about reserves and solvency at other cryptocurrency exchanges and lenders.
In addition, a Twitter account that has been monitoring the recent events involving the Huobi exchange said that Huobi had shut down its internal communication and feedback systems.
BREAKING: Huobi shut down internal employee communication groups and feedback channels.
— Garlam (@GarlamWON) January 5, 2023
What's going on at @HuobiGlobal
The exchange, which is beginning a global development strategy, will continue to offer exceptional personnel industry-competitive incentives and treatment, while also completely respecting the legitimate needs of local employees, according to a spokeswoman for Huobi.