Binance Is 'Reevaluating' Headcount as Bitcoin Bear Market Drags On

Binance has said it is “reevaluating” its headcount but would not confirm if it was cutting staff after rumors swirled on Twitter claiming the world’s biggest crypto exchange was laying off employees. 

In an email to Decrypt today, the controversial company said in a prepared statement that it needed to “focus on talent density” and was not “rightsizing” but rather “reevaluating” whether it had the “right talent and expertise in critical roles.” 

Binance added that it “will be seeking to fill hundreds of open roles” but did not respond to Decrypt’s other questions and would not elaborate further. 

Journalist Colin Wu’s Wu Blockchain newsletter said on Twitter Wednesday that “multiple sources” had confirmed that Binance was already laying off staff. 

“The layoffs may be related to the poor overall market and the large expansion before,” Wu said in a tweet, adding that next month, the exchange may lay off 20% of staff. 

But Binance’s Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann said in a tweet that the exchange was “not cutting 20% of employees as a cost-cutting measure.” 

Binance currently employs around 8,000 people around the globe. The company is the biggest crypto firm in the world and mainly works as a platform where customers can buy, sell and even bet on the future price of a huge amount of digital assets. 

But it has run into trouble lately: Multiple U.S. regulators are investigating the firm and a Reuters report last week claimed that the company had commingled “billions” of customers’ funds, citing unnamed sources. 

The exchange claimed the reports were false.