Mass layoffs at major Middle Eastern crypto exchange due to market sell-off

Although the global cryptocurrency market is starting to recover, its prolonged bearish periods are still taking their toll on some crypto firms, including one of the largest crypto exchanges in the Middle East.

Indeed, the Coinbase-backed Rain Financial Inc. has laid off dozens of its employees during the recent market sluggishness, persons with direct knowledge of the developments told Bloomberg, as published on June 2.

This decision, announced by the management during the week, will impact employees across different departments. As its co-founder and CEO Joseph Dallago explained:

“As cryptocurrencies and global markets continue to slow down, this has, in turn, impacted businesses across the globe. We have had to make tough decisions to be able to navigate through this period of uncertainty, and we can confirm we have downsized our Rain workforce.”

Rain Financial is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and Coinbase Ventures. According to LinkedIn data, the exchange employs between 501 and 1,000 people, while Crunchbase puts this number between 251 and 500.

Bahrain aims to become crypto hub

In late December 2021, Finbold reported on Bahrain, the country where Rain Financial is headquartered, and its forward-thinking crypto-directed efforts as the country’s central bank gave its regulatory approval to Binance Holdings Ltd. to operate as a crypto-asset service provider in the country.

That said, Rain Financial Inc. preceded the world’s largest crypto exchange by becoming the first licensed crypto-asset platform in the country, after having received authorization from Bahrain’s central bank to begin operations in the country in 2019.

Meanwhile, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $1.25 trillion, far below the $2 trillion mark it managed to reclaim back in March, as per CoinMarketCap data. 

Its flagship digital asset – Bitcoin (BTC) – is back above the $30,000 mark, currently trading at $30,482, up 1.64% on the day and 4.85% across the previous week.