Huobi confirms 20% lay-offs as Justin Sun downplays latest FUD

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has confirmed planned layoffs at the company as part of the measures being taken to navigate the tough market conditions. The news comes as the native Huobi Token (HT/USD) traded at lows of $4.70, down more than 11% in the past week.

Huobi to slash 20% of employees

Reuters reported on Friday 6 January 2023 that Huobi will be cutting its workforce by 20%, although this action has not been implemented yet. However, the exchange noted that the current bear market conditions means it will maintain “a very lean team” going forward. A statement from Huobi read:

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“The planned layoff ratio is about 20%, but it is not implemented now. With the current state of the bear market, a very lean team will be maintained going forward.”

While the staff cuts remain pending, Tron founder Justin Sun (an advisor of Huobi) told Reuters the measures are part of a “structural adjustment,” set to be finalised within the next three months. According to Sun, Huobi has 1,100 employees and whatever that’s happening is only “short term pains.”

Ignore FUD

The layoff news came amid massive FUD about Huobi, with jitters about the exchange’s insolvency gripping Crypto Twitter.

Crypto intelligence platform highlighted on Friday that Huobi appeared “to be having internal trouble.” According to the platform, many employees at the exchange had been locked out of a workplace messaging channel amid reports this had been shut down.

Huobi was also looking to pay workers in USDT or USDC stablecoins instead of fiat, sparking employee protests, crypto journalist Colin Wu highlighted earlier in the week.

But Sun says the exchange is ignoring all the fear, uncertainty and doubt and remains focused on the long term and not short term distractions.

“We were founded with the goal of making it easy and convenient for people to trade cryptocurrency. We remain committed to this mission, and we believe that by staying focused on what we do best, we can weather any storm.”