Crypto exchange Huobi to lay off 20% of staff as crypto winter worsens

Just like an angel of death knocking at the door of every crypto company, crypto winter has come for Huobi. The crypto exchange is laying off 20% of its staff, Reuters reported Friday. The layoff is the latest sign of deep cost-cutting measures in the crypto industry as investors’ interest in digital assets weakens due to a slowdown in the global economy.

In response to questions from Reuters, Huobi said in a statement on Friday that “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.”

Huobi, which was ranked the eighth largest crypto exchange in terms of volume as of last November, currently has about 1,100 employees. It wasn’t all bad news for the company. In the last three months, Huobi was able to add an average of 20,000 new daily users to its platform.

Huobi is the latest in a series of crypto companies impacted by the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and other bankruptcies last year. According to a November report, Hbit Limited, a subsidiary of New Huo Technology (the new name of Huobi technology), had around $18.1 million locked on FTX, $13.2 million of which belongs to customers.

Huobi Technology rebranded to New Huo Technology in October the same month Huobi founder Leon Li sold a 100% stake to Justin Sun Fund called About Capital. Crypto pioneer and Tron founder Justin Sun shot to fame for his polarizing views on cryptocurrencies and when he won an auction for lunch with Warren Buffett for about $4.6 million in 2019.

Founded in 2013, Huobi Group is a global blockchain startup that provides safe, secure, and convenient cryptocurrency trading and asset management services to millions of users in 130+ countries. Huobi Japan is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange located in Japan. It currently has a 24-hour trading volume of 6 coins and 10 trading pairs. Huobi Japan has been licensed with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) since 2019.