By the end of this month, 160 Bithumb employees, the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange, will be unemployed. Bithumb tries to withstand the crypto winter storm, keeping 150 of its 310 workers.
According to a spokesperson from the exchange, some of the employees had already applied for voluntary retirement in a bid to help the firm give their replacements proper training for handling the job and assistance. Apart from the above, the spokespersons also divulged that the exchange had a drastic drop in trading volume unlike in previous years the latter coupled with lack of fees left Bithumb with no option but to lay off some of its employees. While they lay off a considerable number of its employees, Bithumb will also employ new personnel to take care of new businesses coming up.
Crypto Winter is a Double-Edged Sword
While cryptocurrency is what gave birth to these firms its volatility feature is giving well-established exchanges like Bithumb a headache since it’s a doubled edged sword.
On the positive side, it provides players in the sector with an opportunity since the huge price swings attract the eyes of investors who come in to capitalize on the opportunity during the bullish trends. However, on the other hand, during the prolonged bearish trend, reputable firms the likes of Bithumb are left in murky waters, in this case, it’s coupled with the crypto winter leading to unbearable market trends.
Other Exchanges Have Also Been Affected
While Bithumb has set plans in motion to lay off 50% of its employees, Joe Lubin Ethereum co-founder of Ethereum had to let go 60% of its personnel while ConsenSys had to drop big projects not generating profits. Further on, ShapeShift had to give up 30% of its employees citing being over ambitious when it came to expanding and crypto winter as the leading cause of the layoffs. While the latter and former had to let go 30% and 60% of its staff respectively social media-based platform Steemit had to drop 70% of its staff. Steemit had to take this approach after its Steem token price dropped significantly.
