Bithumb to Layoff 50% Employees As Bitcoin Trading Volume Decrease by 95%
BitHumb, the largest South Korean Exchange has announced that it will lay off around 50% of its workforce by the end of March 2019. Kim Dae-Shik found the Exchange in 2013; it handles one of the highest volumes of cryptocurrency trades daily. It currently supports 79 cryptocurrencies.
According to a report, the Exchange currently employes 310 members, of which it has decided to lay off nearly 160 employees. These employees have apparently voluntarily asked for a ‘voluntary retirement’ from the Exchange.
A spokesperson for the exchange mentioned that:
Voluntary retirement is part of our support program for former employees and is intended to provide assistance and training for job placement.
Apart from that, [Bithumb’s] trading volume has decreased compared to the previous year, [so] we are trying to provide internal measures. We will continue to add necessary personnel for various new businesses.
Crypto-Winter Hurts Exchange Volumes
The number of new cryptocurrency investors has decreased considerably which the persistent cryptocurrency bear markets. The introduction and adoption of blockchain projects on Distributed Ledger Technology by institutions have also deterred investment in unregulated cryptocurrency projects.
The trading volume on exchanges has decreased by more than 95% from its ATH in 2017. Majority of the altcoins have lost almost all of its trading volume from 2016-2017. The South Korean Exchange was handling a huge volume of trades from South Korea and had considerable effects on prices during the bull run.
However, the prolonging ‘crypto-winter’ has reduced the trade commissions of the exchange to a critical level. The scenario is similar is a couple of other blockchain and cryptocurrency based firms.
Are Lay-offs the only solution to company liquidity problems? What are your views on its effect on the cryptocurrency markets?
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