Cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX says it has reduced its staff to “weather the crypto winter.” The exchange has laid off nearly 40 per cent of its workforce, according to CoinDesk-a global crypto news platform- 

Reportedly, as many as 50 to 70 of 150 WazirX employees were laid off. The laid-off employees were informed on Friday that they would be paid for 45 days and would no longer be needed to report for work. Their access would also be revoked at the same time.

The company, in its statement, said, “Our priority is to be financially stable and to continue serving our customers. To achieve this, we’ve had to reduce our staff to weather the crypto winter.” 

This comes days after the Enforcement Directorate(ED) unfroze WazirX’s bank accounts, allowing the platform to resume banking operations. The platform’s account was frozen by the regulator as a part of an ongoing probe into alleged fraud on instant loan applications, which provided short-term loans.

Bear market

“The crypto market has been in the grip of a bear market because of the current global economic slowdown. The Indian crypto industry has had its unique problems with respect to taxes, regulations, and banking access. This has led to a dramatic fall in volumes in all Indian crypto exchanges,” it said in the statement. 

According to CoinGecko, WazirX daily trade volumes have been steadily decreasing from a one-year high of 478 million on October 28, 2021, to 1.5 million on October 1, 2022.

“This situation is similar to the trying times the industry faced in 2018; at that time, we doubled down and built our innovative P2P engine. We will continue to focus on our customers’ needs and continue to build. We are confident that we will come out stronger when the bull market arrives.” WazirX said. 

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