By
Steve Muchoki
April 18th, 2024
Binance co-founder Yi He also confidently spoke on the company’s ongoing hiring spree. He noted that the company has over 2,000 open positions for engineers, product managers, and business developers.
Despite the roiling market condition, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, is on a hiring spree. Crypto winter is here, and Binance is making the most of it. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange is confident in its hiring spree as it has adequate resources for expansion. He added that the company is also focusing on new acquisitions. Zhao made this surprising statement despite other crypto exchanges laying off employees and suspending hiring new workers.
Speaking last week at the Consensus 2022 conference, the Binance head said the company is leveraging the current bearish market. He revealed that the crypto exchange has a “very healthy war chest.”
According to the CEO, Binance did not spend on promotional costs or naming rights to sports arenas like other exchanges. The company has managed to guard its expenditures, and this is what is sustaining the company despite the global market crash. Zhao may be referring to Crypto.com, which spent $700 million for making rights in November.
Binance on Hiring Spree
Binance co-founder Yi He also confidently spoke on the company’s ongoing hiring spree. He noted that the company has over 2,000 open positions for engineers, product managers, and business developers. He told Fortune:
“The crypto space is still in its early stages, and bull markets tend to care more about price while bear markets have more value-conscious teams that continue to build the industry. We see this as a great time to bring on top talent.”
In addition to hiring more employees, Zhao said Binance is looking to invest in other companies. Binance invested $200 million in Forbes last February to further develop Web3 and blockchain technologies.
Interestingly, Binance is hiring more employees despite major companies across different sectors laying theirs off. In May, fintech firms cut more jobs than in the first four months of 2022. Crypto companies, including Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), and Gemini Trust Co., have also dismissed workers. Earlier in the week, BlockFi and Crypto.com also announced the reduction of head counts. BlockFi CEO Zac Prince wrote that the company is reducing its workforce by “roughly 20%.” Meanwhile, Crypto.com said it is cutting 260 jobs or 5% of headcounts.
More surprising, Binance is onboarding more workers despite the crypto market crash. The crypto space has been collapsing, dragging BTC, ETH, and other assets. Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest price since December 2020, trading as low as $24.900. At press time, the cryptocurrency has declined further and currently trades at $21,270.
Like Binance, FTX declared that it would not be freezing hiring. The exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that more people will join the company than leave as it keeps “pushing forward.”