With the current economic slowdown, insiders report that Indian crypto exchange WazirX has fired 40 percent of its employees. The exchange employed a total workforce of 150 people, of which up to 70 were asked to pack up and go. On Friday, the workers were told that they would receive compensation for 45 days of work and that they would no longer be needed at the company.
In a statement, a WazirX representative explained that the global economic slowdown has led to a bearish crypto market. To make matters worse, India’s crypto industry has had to deal with regional hassles pertaining to banking access, government regulations, and taxes. This has caused a significant drop in trading volumes across many crypto exchanges.
WazirX Lays off Employees from Different Departments
According to one of the sources for the company, WazirX laid off employees from various departments, such as human resources and customer support. Aside from team members, team leaders, analysts, and managers were among the employees who lost their jobs. One employee who lost his job stated that all members of the public policy and communication team were fired.
Another employee said that he suddenly lost his job on Friday and that the company lacked transparency in terms of its financial position. So regardless of whether the company was doing well or not, many employees were left in the dark about their job security.
Steady Decline in WazirX Daily Trading Volumes Prompts Downsizing
The report elaborates that WazirX’s daily trading volumes have continued to decline after experiencing an all-time high last October. Based on CoinGecko data, trading volumes have dropped from 478 million to 1.5 million. It also explains how trading volumes were less than a million on some days, which is insufficient to continue operations.
This decline started after India’s government implemented strict crypto taxation laws in March of 2022. Commenting on these events, Nischal Shetty, Co-Founder of WazirX, stated that the company has entered a ‘period of pain.’
In addition to the taxation and regulation issues, the Indian exchange had a falling out with Binance’s CEO over whether Binance is its parent company. Following the spat between the two CEOs, WazirX trading volumes dropped below 2 million.
WazirX Determined to ‘Come Out Stronger’ When Bull Market Arrives
In their statement, WazirX outlined plans for the future while emphasizing becoming financially stable to better serve customers. Calling it their approach to weather the crypto winter, the company recalled recent events as a reflection of what happened in 2018, when they decided to build the P2P engine.
It’s true that the crypto market works in cycles, so it happens quite often that a bear market is followed by a bull market. Therefore, WazirX intends to work on building the platform in preparation for what they think is inevitable.