Following the lengthy crypto decline, WazirX, a major Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has reduced its workforce by 40%. According to reports, the decision impacted 40–70 out of the 150 workers at the firm. For 45 days, the impacted employees would still be paid.
In a statement on Saturday, WazirX said that the present global economic downturn was to blame for the bear market that has gripped the cryptocurrency sector. As a result, all Indian cryptocurrency exchange volumes have fallen dramatically.
The exchange added that to maintain financial stability and provide clients with proper services, they had to cut down on employees to survive the crypto winter. This situation is quite similar to the challenging times the industry experienced in 2018. Among the sources, one claimed “Several departments, including customer service, HR, and others, have reduced their staff. Those let go included managers, analysts, associate managers, and team leaders.” According to a different employee who was let go, the whole public policy and communication staff was sacked.
This move follows similar ones made by several crypto companies like Gemini, Coinbase, BlockFi, Crypto.com, Bitso, and even NFT Marketplace, OpenSea due to the poor market conditions.
WazirX Squabble with the Indian Authorities
The WazirX employee decrease occurs while the exchange is suing the Indian government over the freezing of its assets. India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED) had frozen about $8 million of the exchange assets in August over money laundering allegations.
The Indian exchange has seen a number of issues recently, including an online argument between Shetty and Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, on whether Binance is the parent business of the Indian exchange. According to statistics from CoinGecko, daily trade volumes were about 5 million during the spat but decreased to fewer than 2 million subsequently.
According to CoinGecko statistics, WazirX daily trade volumes have been slowly decreasing from a one-year high of 478 million on October 28, 2021 to 1.5 million on October 1, 2022. Some days’ trading volumes have been less than one million, and “this is not enough to maintain operations,” according to the sources.
