Cryptocurrency winter is biting more and more fiercely exchange platforms, which are constantly reorganized to cope with its harsh conditions and ensure their survival. For the second time, Bybit has drastically cut its staff, parting ways with 30% of the staff.
Second wave of layoffs at Bybit
Ben Zhou, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange platform Bybit, just announced on Twitter that the company is parting ways with some of its staff. He joins a cohort of companies in the industry that are forced to take several steps to reduce their workforce. Unsurprisingly, this is a tough bear market, as well as deteriorating conditions after the spectacular collapse of the main players, which marked a dismal 2022.
A difficult decision has been made today, but difficult times call for tough decisions. I have just announced plans to reduce our workforce as part of an ongoing corporate reorganization as we seek to refocus our efforts to exacerbate the bear market.
While Ben Zhou remains unclear on the number of layoffs, freelance journalist Colin Wu points out that 30% of employees will be affected, more or less the same as the percentage of the first staff reduction in June last year. An initiative that remained hidden until the internal documents were leaked, as outlined by Cointelegraph. In fact, Ben Zhou now seems to want to play the card of relative transparency.
More than 10,000 employees laid off in the crypto sector in 2022
It may be easier today, as since then no giant in the sector other than Binance has escaped this difficult decision, including Kraken last week, which also laid off 30% of its staff. All found themselves bloated, mostly hired to handle the explosive market growth of 2020-2021. Thus, Bybit’s staff would have increased from a few hundred people to over 2,000 in 2 years. A payroll that cannot be maintained in such a nightmarish context as this year.
Overall, apart from this latest unreported case, crypto companies would lay off almost 10,000 employees in 2022.
And anus horribilis is not over yet…