Just when you thought that the cryptocurrency markets are recovering and better days lie ahead for those in the crypto industry, another news of layoffs hits the markets! South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is gearing up to let go as many as 50% of their staff, reports from the country indicate.
Bithumb, which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, currently employs over 300 people. However, following this layoff drive, Bithumb will be sized down to around 150 employees. Interestingly, Bithumb pointed out that when they say 50% of their staff are being laid off - it mostly includes those people who want to leave the organization voluntarily. A spokesperson for Bithumb commented:
“Voluntary retirement is part of our support program for former employees and is intended to provide assistance and training for job placement. Apart from that, [Bithumb’s] trading volume has decreased compared to the previous year, [so] we are trying to provide internal measures. We will continue to add necessary personnel for various new businesses.”
While Bithumb claims that most of these employees wanted to leave voluntarily, this move is being taken by the exchange due to the “crypto winter” of 2018. All through the year, the price of Bitcoin and every other cryptocurrency continued to slide downwards. This led to investors keeping away from the markets and the amount of funds flowing through the exchanges fell drastically.
A number of crypto-related firms are downsizing. Late last year, Bitmain, the biggest name in the world when it comes to creating cryptocurrency mining equipment also let off 50% of their workforce in a similar move. The company also shut down two of its international offices in Israel and Amsterdam and also paused their mining operations in Texas. Other major names in the crypto-industry such as DASH and Consensys are also looking towards downsizing in the near future.
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