Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, is planning to increase its staff numbers by 15% to 30% in 2023, chief executive officer (CEO) Changpeng Zhao said Wednesday at the Crypto Finance Conference in Switzerland.
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Fast facts
- “We will continue to build and hopefully we will ramp up again before the next bull market,” Zhao said at the crypto conference, according to CNBC. The Binance CEO added that right now, the exchange is “not super efficient” and will aim to be better organized.
- The crypto exchange more than doubled its staff last year to almost 8,000 employees from 3,000, according to Zhao.
- Zhao said that the “actual damage” from the FTX exchange collapse on the crypto industry is “not that high” and the industry will persevere.
- Binance’s planned hiring spree is contrary to rival exchanges that have announced huge staff cuts amid a year-long slump in crypto prices, with Bitcoin down 73% from an all time high of US$69,044 in November 2021.
- Kraken exchange announced a 30% reduction in staff in November, Huobi plans a 20% cut, while Coinbase said Tuesday that it will let go another 20% of its employees after it fired about 18% in June last year.
- FTX, once the second largest exchange in the world by trade volume, imploded in November amidst revelations of improper disclosure and misappropriation of client funds, sparking a mass exodus of investors from crypto exchanges.
- The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is currently sitting at US$873 billion, nearly 20% lower than the November peak of US$1.06 trillion prior to the FTX collapse, according to CoinMarketCap data.
See related article: U.S. crypto exchange Kraken to lay off 30% of its workforce, cites ‘market conditions’