London Crowned World’s Leading Cryptocurrency Hub, According to Study

February 2, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Huobi Layoffs Spark Controversy and Speculation, Justin Sun Claims Everything Is Fine

January 6, 2023 Bitcoin.com

FTX resumes paying staff and contractors after weeks in limbo

November 29, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Benefits

The payments will exclude former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and certain former execs including Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Alameda's Caroline Ellison.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has announced it will be “resuming ordinary” cash payments, salaries and benefits to its remaining employees around the world.

The announcement came from new FTX CEO John Ray III on Nov. 28, as the insolvency professional looks to help FTX and its approximated 101 affiliated companies (FTX Debtors) navigate their way through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

"With the Court's approval of our First Day motions and the work being done on global cash management, I am pleased that the FTX group is resuming ordinary course cash payments of salaries and benefits to our remaining employees around the world.”

“FTX also is making cash payments to selected non-U.S. vendors and service providers where necessary to preserve business operations, subject to the limits approved by the Bankruptcy Court,” he added.

The announcement comes around 10 days after FTX debtors filed a motion to pay prepetition compensation and benefits to employees and contractors in the Delaware bankruptcy court on Nov. 19, which excludes payments to former FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, along with Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Caroline Ellison.

Sharing our press release just issued: FTX Resumes Ordinary Course Payments of Employees and Certain Foreign Contractors
https://t.co/8CDnlsvu2j
— FTX (@FTX_Official) November 28, 2022

The latest announcement will mean that the remaining employees and contractors of FTX will be receiving nearly three weeks' worth of pay, which was presumably halted after the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

Ray acknowledged the financial hardship imposed on FTX employees and foreign contractors with the payment delay and thanked them for their support.

“We recognize the hardship imposed by the temporary interruption in these payments and thank all of our valuable employees and partners for their support."

The relief will include cash payments owed to workers at FTX Trading and 101 other affiliated companies since the Nov. 11 bankruptcy filing, in addition to the many vendors and service providers who still need to be paid out by FTX.

However, the resumption of payments won’t apply to all FTX subsidiaries and related companies.

In The Bahamas, where the crypto exchange is headquartered, only employees and contractors of the FTX Debtors will receive relief, but not those who worked for FTX Digital Markets, which is subject to a separate liquidation proceeding in The Bahamas.

It also won't apply to Australia-based employees and contractors for FTX Australia and its subsidiary FTX Express, which are also subject to separate proceedings in Australia.

On Nov. 22, FTX Trading announced it had been granted interim and final approvals for all of the "First Day" motions for matters related to its bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11.

At the time, Ray said he expected the motions to fast-track FTX Debtor’s efforts to reimburse other stakeholders affected by the trading platform’s collapse, such as FTX users and creditors, with the new CEO suggesting that a potential buyout of FTX’s assets could benefit stakeholders sooner rather than later.

However, some insolvency lawyers warn that the process could take years, or even decades, given the complexity and scope of FTX’s collapse.

Insolvency lawyer Stephen Earel, partner at Co Cordis in Australia recently told Cointelegraph that it’ll take the courts several years, if not decades, to determine who owned what crypto assets before coming up with a plan to redistribute those funds.

FTX Trading alone owes its top 50 creditors $3.1 billion, according to a document submitted as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

FTX collapse could see crypto sector layoffs accelerate

November 15, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockfi

While the full impact of FTX’s collapse is still unfolding, some have already warned of an increase in layoffs to come “in the months to follow.”

The fall of crypto exchange FTX and potential resulting contagion could lead to an acceleration of crypto-company layoffs in the coming months, recruitment specialists warn.

A Nov. 14 report from crypto data aggregator platform CoinGecko found that as of Nov. 13, the crypto space has seen 4,695 employees let go in 2022 so far, presenting 4% of staff cuts across all “technology startups.”

However, the authors of the report warn that crypto layoffs could increase in the coming months when the “full impact” of FTX’s sudden collapse takes effect:

“With the collapse of FTX since November 2 and its full impact on the cryptocurrency space still unfolding, further cryptocurrency layoffs may occur in the months to follow.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, CryptoRecruit founder Neil Dundon argues that while FTX’s events will cause some layoffs, it hasn’t changed the broader trend that crypto recruitment follows crypto prices.

“Layoffs have been consistent effectively following the same trend as crypto prices. FTX hasn’t changed that broader trend albeit a tragic event,” he said, adding:

“There will be layoffs because of it but that will present opportunities for good projects to scoop up good talent which we are collecting.”

Kevin Gibson, the founder of recruitment firm Proof of Search was less optimistic, sharing that he had one candidate that was due to start employment today but had his offer “pulled” during the first call with the company.

Gibson said it was hard to comment on how the FTX collapse will shake out as it’s “changing daily” but said his candidate’s experience “will not be an isolated incident.”

Companies across the crypto sector have already undergone a number of layoffs throughout the year as a result of the market downturn.

Among the most recent staff cuts in the industry include payment processor Stripe’s layoff of 1,000 employees, Flow blockchain developer Dapper Lab’s 22% cut, and venture capital firm Digital Currency Group’s 10% layoff. All layoffs took effect in early November.

Digital asset-focused investment firm Galaxy Digital was also reported to be eyeing off a 20% cut on Nov. 1.

Coinbase is understood to have cut another 60 staff on Nov. 10, according to Yahoo Finance.

The latest CoinGecko report follows an earlier Nov. 4 report which looked into the cities most impacted by cryptocurrency layoffs.

At the top of the list was San Francisco — home to Silicon Valley, one of the world’s largest technology and innovation hubs — which was followed by Dubai, New York City and Singapore.

Hodlnaut cuts 80% of staff, applies for Singapore judicial management

August 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Embattled cryptocurrency lending platform Hodlnaut cuts staff ahead of application for judicial management.

Cryptocurrency lending firm Hodlnaut has cut most of its workforce and has applied to be placed under judicial management due to bleak financial circumstances.

Hodlnaut, which offers interest-bearing cryptocurrency investment options in vetted institutions, confirmed the dire state of affairs on Aug. 19. The company’s poor financial position has been put down to losses suffered by its Hong Kong subsidiary during the infamous TerraUSD crash, high volumes of withdrawals and the general downturn across cryptocurrency markets.

The company opted to apply for judicial management, which will see the Singaporean Court appoint a manager to review its accounts and activities as a last resort to avoid liquidations of Hodlnaut’s holdings of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Judicial management will also allow the company to enact a recovery plan and potentially rehabilitate the company. The statement from the firm noted that it plans to restore its asset to debt ratio to 1:1 to allow users the ability to withdraw their initial cryptocurrency deposits.

Hodlnaut also noted that it was exploring the option to allow users to withdraw initial deposits with interest accrued in full before closing their accounts with Hodlnaut. This is now subject to the approval of the soon-to-be-appointed judicial manager.

The company will take steps to stabilise its liquidity by reducing burn rates, which will see all open term interest rates changed to 0% APR from Aug. 22. The company also confirmed that it had retrenched 40 employees, accounting for 80% of its team, in order to further reduce expenses.

The application for Judicial Management will take place on Aug. 22, just a couple of weeks after Hodlnaut suspended withdrawals and deposits on its platform. The firm has maintained that it did not have any investment exposure to now-bankrupt lending firm 3 Arrows Capital, but on-chain analytics suggests that Hodlnaut had exposure to Terra's failed algorithmic stablecoin UST.

Hodlnaut also confirmed that proceedings were ongoing involving the Singapore Attorney-General and the Singapore Police Force.

Workers in volatile economies most likely to take pay in crypto: Report

July 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

There has been an increase in employee crypto payments for the first half of this year despite the market crash, according to Deel.

Residents in nations with volatile economies are more likely to receive their pay in crypto, according to global hiring platform Deel.

In its “State of Global Hiring Report” shared with Cointelegraph on July 21, the firm found that despite the 2022 bear market, crypto represented 5% of all global payments withdrawn from the platform every month, up from 2% in the second half of 2021.

Residents in nations with volatile economic situations and currencies were most likely to take their payments in crypto, according to the report. These included countries in Latin America (LATAM) and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Crypto withdrawals in the LATAM region represented 67% of the total, with EMEA countries at 24%. Those from the North American region represented just 7% of the total for crypto payments. The Asia Pacific region was even lower with just a 2% share of the whole.

In terms of asset type, Bitcoin (BTC) remained the crypto of choice, making up 47% of the total. The second choice of digital asset for payments was Circle’s USDC with 29%, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at 14%. Tether’s USDT did not make the list.

Shannon Karaka, Head of Expansion ANZ for Deel, told Cointelegraph that in general, "we find that people typically only withdraw part of their pay in crypto, which could mean they are still using it as a long-term investment vehicle as well," before adding:

“From what we’ve seen in the field, getting paid in crypto is most attractive to three main groups of people; those who use the tool to hedge against local currency instability, those working in jurisdictions with dated local banking systems that can slow down payroll, and those who are adding some crypto coin to their investment portfolio. The majority of our crypto withdrawals are coming out of LATAM and EMEA, which is likely driven by the first two use cases.”

Deel sourced the data from over 100,000 cross-border worker contracts on the platform between January and July 2022. The firm helps businesses compliantly hire, onboard, and pay people in different countries. It noted that LATAM tops the list of regions hiring internationally.

Surging inflation is a concern for many countries in the Latin American region. Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Paraguay all have double-digit inflation, according to Trading Economics.

Diminishing purchasing power using their own fiat currencies is likely to have influenced the increase in crypto payments to regional workers.