Binance to Increase Staffing by 15-30% in 2023 Despite Competitors Cutting Jobs

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Wednesday that the company is planning a hiring spree in 2023, even as other crypto firms are laying off large numbers of employees amid continued pressure on coin prices. This is a somewhat contrarian view, but one that could pay off big for Binance if the crypto market recovers.

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Zhao said that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has increased its headcount from 3,000 people to “almost” 8,000 people.

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Zhao said at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland that Binance plans to increase the number of staff by between 15% and 30% in 2023.
Other exchanges have had to lay off many employees after losing almost $1.4 trillion in value from the crypto market in 2022. This includes major digital currencies like bitcoin and ether, whose prices have dropped significantly.

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In November, Kraken announced it was laying off 30% of staff. This year, Huobi and Coinbase have also announced plans to cut 20% of their workforce. This is the second round of job cuts for Coinbase in the last year.
Zhao said that in order for Binance to be prepared for the next crypto bull run, the company needs to be more organized. He also admitted that the exchange is not very efficient. Zhao said that the company will continue to build and hopefully ramp up again before the next bull market.

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The crypto industry was plagued last year by a number of major setbacks, including the collapse of several major projects, liquidity issues, bankruptcies and the high-profile failure of crypto exchange FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, has been charged with eight criminal counts by U.S. prosecutors, including fraud.

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Binance's role in FTX's collapse was significant. In November, Binance offered to purchase FTX's non-U.S. businesses which were facing liquidity issues, but later backed out of the deal. Zhao said publicly that his company was selling its holdings in FTX's native token FTT, which exacerbated the collapse of that digital coin, adding to FTX's downward spiral. Zhao has said that he did not plan the collapse of FTX.

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At the CFC St Moritz conference, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was asked for his thoughts on the FTX collapse. He responded by saying that the actual damage to the crypto industry from the incident is not that high. He went on to say that FTX is not a big player in the industry, but rather a company that makes a lot of noise.
Zhao said that while there is definitely some damage, the industry will be fine in the end.