Binance plans a 15-30% hiring spree in 2023 even as rivals lay off workers

While the daily headlines are dominated by tech companies and crypto firms laying off hundreds of thousands of workers, the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance is planning a massive hiring spree in 2023.

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said Wednesday that the company is planning to increase its headcount by between 15% and 30%. Zhao made the statement at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Zhao added Binance increased staff strength in 2022 from 3,000 people to “almost” 8,000.

“We will continue to build and hopefully we will ramp up again before the next bull market,” Zhao said at the conference.

Zhao however cautioned that Binance needs to get the company “well-organized” ahead of the next crypto bull run and also admitted the company is “not super efficient.”

The announcement comes at a time when rival exchanges have been forced to lay off large parts of their workforce after nearly $1.4 trillion was wiped off the crypto market in 2022 due to the ongoing crypto winter and the collapse of FTX.

In recent weeks, a handful of crypto exchanges have let go of thousands of their employees as crypto contagion spreads. As we reported yesterday, Coinbase announced it will reduce its workforce by about 950 employees as part of the cost-cutting measures and restructuring plan.

Crypto exchange Kraken also announced late last year it was laying off 1,100 employees (about 30% of its total staff).  Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said in a blog post: “This reduction takes our team size back to where it was only 12 months ago” and described the move as necessary because “negative influences on the financial markets have continued and we have exhausted preferable options for bringing costs in line with demand.”

Founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He, the Cayman Islands-based Binance is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. It provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. Binance also provides access to exchange digital currency pairs on the market while maintaining security, and liquidity, enabling a safe and efficient deal with anyone, anytime and anywhere.

Binance platform is used by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more.