Binance.US cuts third of staff as CEO Brian Shroder leaves

September 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

The staff cut and departure comes amid legal action from United States regulators.

Binance.US, the United States arm of the crypto exchange has cut around a third of its staff — or 100 positions — with its president and CEO Brian Shroder also departing the firm.

A Binance.US spokesperson confirmed the layoffs and Shroder's departue to Cointelegraph, adding it took the actions to give the exchange "more than seven years of financial runway" amid its move to a crypto-only exchange.

"The [Securities and Exchange Commission's] aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and the resulting impacts on our business have real world consequences for American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that.”

The spokesperson confirmed Shroder was replaced on an interim basis by chief legal officer Norman Reed.

Shroder joined Binance.US in September 2021 and his departure comes amid a slew of regulatory action taken against the firm in recent months.

Earlier this year, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, Binance.US, and the exchange's co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao alleging it operated an illegal exchange, sold unregistered securities, violated commodities laws and mishandled customer funds.

Update (Sep. 13, 12:30 am UTC): This article has been updated with a comment from a Binance.US spokesperson.

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ConsenSys slashes headcount 11% as chief economist reveals formula for adoption

January 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin confirmed the company would be cutting 96 of its staff to focus its resources on its core businesses.

ConsenSys, the parent company behind MetaMask, is letting go of 11% of its workforce, with CEO Joseph Lubin blaming “uncertain market conditions” brought on by recent collapses.

In a blog post from ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin on Jan. 18, the blockchain firm CEO said “poorly behaved” centralized finance (CeFi) actors have cast a “broad pall on our ecosystem that we will all need to work through.”

Lubin said the decision will impact 96 employees and is part of plans to focus its resources on its core businesses.

Today we need to make the extremely difficult decision to streamline some of ConsenSys’ teams to adjust to challenging and uncertain market conditions.https://t.co/Svuk9yYj6J

1/10
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) January 18, 2023

Speaking to Cointelegraph a few days before the layoffs were officially announced — though they had already been widely reported — Lex Sokolin, the chief cryptoeconomics officer of ConsenSys said that the industry was still far from mass adoption globally.

“We're still in a place where this is emerging technology. It’s not entirely well understood by the whole public,” he said.

According to Consensys, during the last bull run, over 30 million users each month were using MetaMask to access DeFi protocols, mint and trade NFTs and participate in DAOs. While promising, that’s a drop in the ocean globally.

“MetaMask has 30 million monthly users and in Web3, there are maybe 500 million addresses,” Sokolin said. “But that’s not five billion people.”

Asked when crypto will see mainstream adoption, Sokolin said it was all about having enough compelling use cases for crypto, as well as a thriving ecosystem to support it.

*Lex Sokolin, Chief Cryptoeconomist, ConsenSys Source: Lexsokolin.com*

He also rejected the idea that it will come as a result of better user experience and clearer regulations.

“They're not the things that people say [such as] ‘when is UI going to be better’, or ‘when is regulation going to make it better.’ Those are important, but [...] they're not the catalyst,” said Sokolin adding:

“The catalyst of things is, one: Is there going to be enough stuff to buy on Web3 that I want to own?”

“If I live in Web3 and my avatar and my social media and my data and my status as a person, prestige, community belonging [...] is tied to me owning digital objects [...] you're gonna inevitably get to a place where everyone wants to be doing commercial transactions in Web3.”

“So for me, economic adoption is the most important thing. Because it's going to pull the rest of it into the ecosystem.”

In his latest post, Lubin said the company will be focused on streaming its workforce and focusing its business on core value drivers, including end-user custody solution MetaMask, developer platform Infura, and “new offerings” that grow Web3 commerce and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) communities.

Crypto.com CEO announces 20% staff cut, ‘did not account’ for FTX collapse

January 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

"While we continue to perform well, growing to more than 70 million users worldwide and maintaining a strong balance sheet, we’ve had to navigate ongoing economic headwinds. "

The co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek, has announced a new wave of staff layoffs that will reduce its global workforce by another 20%, citing poor market conditions and "recent industry events."

"Today we made the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce by approximately 20%," Marszalek said in a company update on Jan. 13.

As I shared with the team today, while we continue to perform well, market conditions and recent industry events have made this the right decision for the company at this time.
— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) January 13, 2023

"All impacted personnel have already been notified. These reductions were in no way related to performance, and we extend our deepest gratitude for all their contributions to Crypto.com."

Marszalek said several factors influenced their decision, including "ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events." This was despite the crypto exchange growing to more than 70 million users worldwide.

"We grew ambitiously at the start of 2022, building on our incredible momentum and aligning with the trajectory of the broader industry. That trajectory changed rapidly with a confluence of negative economic developments."

The crypto exchange announced staff layoffs in June 2022, leading to 5% of its corporate workforce being laid off, affecting approximately 260 people.

Marszalek said the layoffs last year positioned it to weather the macro economic downturn, but it did not account for the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022, which he said "significantly damaged trust in the industry."

"It’s for this reason, as we continue to focus on prudent financial management, we made the difficult but necessary decision to make additional reductions in order to position the company for long-term success."

Only days earlier, crypto exchange Coinbase announced on Jan. 10 that it was cutting 950 jobs as part of the company’s measures to reduce operating costs by around 25% amid the ongoing crypto winter.

Other crypto exchanges to announce layoffs in the last month include Kraken, Swyftx and Huobi.

Doubts mount over Huobi’s future as harsh layoff rumors denied

January 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Canceled bonuses, pay disputes, massive layoffs and a communication blackout has been claimed as part of the goings-on at the crypto exchange.

Speculation on Twitter that crypto exchange Huobi has laid off staff and shuttered internal communications have prompted the community to advise users to withdraw funds, despite an adviser to the exchange denying the rumors.

In a Jan. 5 tweet, Huobi adviser Justin Sun addressed rumors of purported insolvency, saying the business development of the exchange was “good” and the “security of users’ assets will always be fully protected.”

Sun also seemingly brushed off speculation around disgruntled staff, saying Huobi will “fully respect the legal demands of local employees.”

Earlier, on Jan. 3, crypto journalist Colin Wu reported that Sun changed Huobi employee salaries from being paid in fiat to being paid in either Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC). Wu claimed thstaff who disagreed with the change could be laid off.

Justin Sun's HR is communicating with all Huobi employees to change the salary form from fiat currency to USDT/USDC; employees who cannot accept it may be dismissed. The move sparked protests from some employees. Exclusive https://t.co/QB4sjDyHc7
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 4, 2023

Citing insiders, Wu reported in December that Huobi canceled year-end bonuses and was preparing to cut up to half of its 1,200 staff.

The move to change the salary payment from fiat to stablecoins sparked protests from some employees, according to Wu.

A Jan. 4 tweet from the Twitter account BitRun claimed that a “communication group with internal employees” at the exchange had been shut down and “all communication and feedback channels with employees” were blocked.

BitRun added they weren’t ruling out a revolt by Huobi employees who could “directly rug away user assets or programmers add backdoor Trojan horses” claiming the practice was “not protected by domestic laws.”

Huobi is based in Seychelles, with offices in Hong Kong, the United States, Japan and South Korea. It’s a publicly listed company on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

The ominous warning was enough for one Twitter user to claim Huobi “seems to be melting down in real-time” and others suggested users withdraw funds from the exchange due to the rumors.

If you are using Huobi
Do consider withdrawing assets till the FUD blows over

Some rather negative sentiment and accusations are going around Twitter aimed against Huobi.

Unverified so do your own due diligence and risk management accordingly.
— RossStephenson.eth (@magicross7) January 6, 2023

Huobi Token (HT) is down nearly 7% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

Cointelegraph contacted Huobi for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

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layoff

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