While Coinbase and Crypto.com are announcing massive layoffs, Binance and Kraken are ramping up hiring with more than 2,500 positions available for both companies in total. Polygon has also hired Meta’s former marketing specialist
Binance, Kraken and Polygon are hiring despite uncertain market conditions…
Crypto platforms Binance and Kraken as well as sidechain Polygon have all announced that they are recruiting new talent, even as the crypto market has been experiencing a large-scale decline for several months.
But for Binance, everything looks good. A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that the platform has more than 2,000 job openings in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says:
Our business strategy was to position Binance for sustained growth over the next decade through multiple market downturns or even a prolonged multi-year market decline. We believe that bear markets offer the best opportunity for companies to invest in or acquire large projects at a more favorable price point. “
Rival platform Kraken also revealed plans to increase its workforce, announcing it would hire more than 500 people.
Meanwhile, Polygon also publicly announced a notable hire today, recruiting former Meta and Microsoft marketer Jennifer Kattula as senior vice president of marketing. The company says it has hired 50 new people in all areas recently.
..while Coinbase or Crypto.com are cutting back on staff
At the same time, the American giant Coinbase announced this week that it would lay off 18% of its global workforce, or more than 1,100 people.
Other companies in the crypto sector are suffering the same fate such as Crypto.com, which announced on Monday job cuts representing 5% of its workforce. BlockFi also plans to cut 20% of its staff.
These are direct consequences of a bear market for several months. But in reality, most of the companies that are dramatically cutting staff like Coinbase or Crypto.com are also the ones that had astronomical advertising spend in 2021, when crypto market conditions were great.
Changpeng Zhao was quick to allude to them in a tweet. He suggests that his company is in a strong position today because it has given up spending large amounts of money on advertising:
It was not easy saying no to Super bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did.
Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for Binance pic.twitter.com/n24nrUik8O
– CZ Binance (@cz_binance) June 15, 2022
Expense management is important in a business, and this situation is proof of that. As the bear market takes hold, one wonders if we’ll see more companies laying off employees.
