Journalists report Huobi plans to cancel bonuses and cut staff

The cryptocurrency exchange Huobi will cancel year-end bonuses and carry out a staff optimisation, according to journalist Colin Wu, citing sources.

Justin Sun’s Huobi exchange will cancel all year-end bonuses, and will prepare to lay off the team of 1,200 people to 600-800 people, and cut the salaries of senior employees, according to several insiders. Exclusive

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 30, 2022

According to them, the company will cut its workforce from 1,200 to 600-800. In addition, Huobi will trim the salaries of senior employees.

ForkLog sought comment from Huobi representatives but did not receive a response at the time of writing.

In June Wu reported that the exchange planned to cut the staff by 30% in the wake of a sharp revenue decline after the ban on users from China in September 2021.

In autumn Huobi announced a rebranding, which involved dropping the official name Huobi Global, and also denied rumours of a possible merger with Poloniex.

Earlier, the company agreed to the sale of a controlling stake to a Hong Kong investment company About Capital Management. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to Wu, the ultimate beneficiary of the purchase was Tron founder Justin Sun. This information was also denied — Huobi representatives clarified that he had joined the advisory board.

Earlier, Gemini, Bitso and the parent company of the Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin announced staff reductions. Staff cuts were also announced by Coinbase, BlockFi and the institutional platform NYDIG.

The cryptocurrency arm of Fidelity Investments, by contrast, said it planned to hire 100 new employees in the next six months.

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