Binance ‘not planning any layoffs,’ 500 roles to be filled in H1

March 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BTC

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that they hired 600 people since January and have no imminent plans for layoffs.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is “not planning any layoffs” and is instead trying to fill another 500 roles by the end of June, according to a Binance spokesperson.

The comments came despite a huge spike in crypto layoffs in January — the majority of which were from crypto exchanges. In a statement, the Binance representative said:

“As of today, we are actively hiring for more than 500 roles with the goal of filling them by the end of H1 [...] We are not planning any layoffs.”

The spokesperson was responding to a request for clarification from Cointelegraph on March 1 regarding a tip it had received of possible redundancies at the crypto exchange. The latest comments appear to completely refute this speculation.

At the time of writing, Binance had 463 listings on its job openings page, with roles in business development, communications, customer support and engineering, to name a few.

*Some of the business development job openings at Binance. Source:* *Binance*

In January, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the firm was planning for a hiring spree in 2023, increasing its headcount by 15% to 30%, according to a Jan. 11 report from CNBC.

The spokesperson said that the company has hired more than 600 people since the start of 2023.

According to CoinGecko, 84.8% of the crypto layoffs in January were due to crypto exchanges reducing headcount, including Coinbase, Huobi, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com and Luno.

Coinbase announced it would be reducing its headcount by around 950 on Jan. 10, while Crypto.com announced on Jan. 13 that it would be reducing its workforce by around 500.

Binance has been regarded by some, such as Arcane, as one of the “winners” of 2022, with the fall of crypto exchange FTX and the implementation of zero-fee Bitcoin (BTC) trading leading to it capturing an overwhelming portion of the market.

On the other side of the coin, the exchange has also seen intense scrutiny. Most recently, this has revolved around the alleged shuffling of $1.8 billion in funds which some have compared to the actions of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Binance used $1.8 billion in customer funds for its own purposes, similar to what FTX did

Here we go again
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) February 28, 2023

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to respond to the allegations, labeling it “FUD” and suggesting it was standard practice for an exchange.

This year has had a tough start for those working in the crypto industry, with at least 14 firms and nearly 3,000 jobs being lost in January before a milder 570 layoffs in February.

But the tide could be turning, with the crypto market cap increasing by over 34% so far in 2023, according to CoinMarketCap, and other firms, such as USDC issuer Circle, also planning to go on a hiring spree.

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DEX token GMX rallies 35% after beating Uniswap on trading fees for the first time

December 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin

GMX’s technical indicator hints at a strong correction in December, which may push its price toward $40.

The price of GMX rallied to its second-highest level in history on Dec. 1 as traders assessed the decentralized exchange’s ability to evolve as a serious competitor to its top rival Uniswap.

GMX established an intraday high of $54.50 in a recovery that started on Nov. 29 from $40.50. Its rally’s beginning coincided with crypto research firm Delphi Digital’s tweet on the GMX decentralized exchange, as shown below.

*GMX/USD 4-hour price chart. Source: TradingView*

GMX beats Uniswap in fees for the first time

Notably, GMX earned about $1.15 million in daily trading fees on Nov. 28, which surpassed Uniswap’s $1.06 million in trading fees on the same day.

*GMX flipped Uniswap in daily Fees on Nov. 28. Source: Delphi Digital*

This seemingly renewed buying sentiment in the GMX market, helping its price rally 35% to $54.50 afterward.

Moreover, GMX also benefited from the growing discontent against centralized exchanges in the wake of the FTX collapse. The decentralized exchange’s revenue rose by 107% to $5 million in November, boosted by a 128% increase in annualized trading volume and a 31% rise in daily active users.

*GMX exchange’s financial data. Source: Token Terminal*

In comparison, Uniswap’s annualized revenue increased by about 75% and daily active users by 8%.

Independent market analyst Zen noted that GMX’s outperformance could have stemmed from its tokenholders receiving a good portion of all trading fees — about 30%, according to GMX’s official declaration.

On the other hand, holders of Uniswap’s native token, UNI, do not receive shares from the platform’s trading fees.

“[GMX is] an obvious buy and hold during this bear market,” Zen added, saying that it is “consistently the second highest earning protocol after Uniswap.” An excerpt:

“Leverage trading becomes dominant during bear markets. FTX and Bybit grew a lot last time. Expecting [a] similar story here. No big FDV overhang.”

GMX price technicals tilt bearish

From a technical analysis perspective, GMX’s ongoing bull run risks exhaustion in the coming days.

On the daily chart, GMX’s price tests its multi-month ascending trendline resistance for a potential pullback based on its previous corrections after testing the same trendline. In doing so, the token eyes a decline toward the ascending trendline support.

*GMX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

As of Dec. 1, GMX faced an increase in selling pressure near the trendline resistance at around $53. The GMX/USD pair could drop to the current trendline support near $42, which coincides with its 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the red wave) and its 0.618 Fib line.

In other words, GMX could drop by nearly 20% from its current price levels by the end of 2022.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

FTX collapse followed by an uptick in stablecoin inflows and DEX activity

November 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoins

Investors piled into stablecoins following FTX’s collapse, and an uptick in DEX activity suggests a rising interest in self-custody options.

On-chain data from Glassnode show Bitcoin’s (BTC) movements hit a new record for the largest net decline in aggregate BTC balances on exchanges, reducing by 72,900 BTC in one week.

A similar movement occurred in April 2020, November 2020 and June 2022, with the current outflow leaving around 2.25 million BTC on exchanges.

*Bitcoin exchange balances with net position change line. Source: Glassnode*

Exchange exodus for Ether, but not stablecoins

While Ether (ETH) did not see an all-time high outflow from exchanges, 1.1 million ETH was withdrawn from exchanges over the last week. According to Glassnode, this marks the largest 30-day exchange balance decline since September 2020 during the decentralized finance (DeFi) summer in the same year.

*Ether exchange net position change. Source: Glassnode*

Contrary to Bitcoin’s and Ether’s declining balances on exchanges, stablecoin balances remain net positive on exchanges, meaning their balances are growing. Over $1.04 billion in Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and Dai (DAI) moved to exchanges on Nov. 10. This marks Nov. 10 as the seventh-largest stablecoin inflow to exchanges.

*Exchanges’ stablecoin net volume. Source: Glassnode*

According to Glassnode, with the major influx of stablecoins to exchanges, the current $41.186 billion total is an all-time high.

*Stablecoins on exchanges. Source: Glassnode*

Bitcoin miners continue to sell

Bitcoin miners continue to remain under extreme pressure, and data highlights that hash prices are at all-time lows. The record-low hash prices led to miners selling around 9.5% of their treasuries, around 7.76 million BTC. This sell-off marks the sharpest monthly decline for miner balances since September 2018.

*Bitcoin miner balances. Source: Glassnode*

Decentralized and centralized altcoin performance

Delphi Digital used asset baskets to analyze performance between decentralized exchange (DEX) and centralized exchange (CEX) tokens and found that when comparing the basket prices to BTC, the DEX basket gained 24% whereas the CEX basket is down 2%.

*CEX and DEX basket performance. Source: Delphi Digital*

Generally, on-chain activity correlates to overall Bitcoin, Ether and altcoin market sentiment, with the current FTX chaos catalyzing historic exchange outflows and CEX tokens’ underperformance. A likely trend to emerge from the current chaos is a steady uptick in self-custodied cryptocurrencies and an increase in DEX use.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Centralized Exchange