Justin Sun, a prominent crypto entrepreneur who joined the company as an advisor in October 2022, had denied the allegations that the firm was to cut staff as recently as this week.
Sun told Chinese news outlet the South China Morning Post that reports of the panned layoffs were “untrue”.
But news about alleged financial issues at Huobi has been circulating in recent weeks; it was reported last week by independent crypto journalist Colin Wu that staff salaries were being paid in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, which reportedly provoked a widespread outcry from employees.
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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
Decrypt has contacted Huobi for comment on the reports and will update this story with its response.
According to data from CoinGecko, Huobi is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, with around $367 million of 24-hour volume daily and 12.5 million monthly visits.
In June, Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com laid off 260 employees, or 5% of its workforce, with reports that it unofficially laid off more circulating in August.
It’s possible that more layoffs could be on the horizon; Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao warned employees in an internal memo that he expects the “next several months to be bumpy.”
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