- The Coinbase exchange platform is shutting down most of its effectiveness in Japan as part of its efforts to pull through in the bear market.
- The shift comes as the exchange company cuts off 20% of its staff in its latest layoff.
- Japan’s developments are an “example of right-sizing” investments to fit local opportunities.
On Wednesday, the second largest global crypto exchange by trade volume revealed that it would shut down a mass of its operations in Japan as part of its recent plan to make it through the endless market winter. The information comes after the exchange CEO announced on Tuesday via a blog post that the platform will cut its global workforce by 20% effective immediately to reduce overall expenses by 25%.
In an interview conducted by BNN Bloomberg, the Vice President for International and Business Development, Nana Murugesan, stated that most of the exchange’s operations will be shut down.
“We’ve decided to wind down most of our operations in Japan, eliminating most of our roles in our Japan entity.”
The Coinbase executive did not give many details on how Japanese employees will be impacted; however, he noted that a small number of Japanese employees would stay to ensure that the customer assets are kept safe.
Murugesan stated that the Coinbase Japan Chief Executive, Nao Kitazawa, is in talks with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). The following steps for the Japanese unit will be concluded afterward.
Nana characterized Japan’s developments as “an example of right-sizing.” He added that the crypto platform is willing to make hard decisions to ensure that its investments align with the local market opportunity.”
While Coinbase did not comment on mergers and acquisitions in the BNN Bloomberg interview, Coinbase’s spokesperson noted that” there are no decisions that have been made beyond the reduction of workforce. We are carefully evaluating our choices and will communicate any updates as soon as they become available.”
Crypto firms battling severe market conditions
Following Coinbase’s cut-off, as revealed by Brian Armstrong, the company’s CEO, noted that the layoffs mean the crypto company will close down various projects where they have a lower probability of success, which he did not dive into specifics on which projects would be affected.
Noteworthy, this is the second round of layoffs in the platform in seven months, as the exchange in June already reduced its workforce by 18% due to the uncertain market conditions. Previously, Brian Armstrong claimed that the company had increased and the employee costs were too high to manage amidst the uncertain market conditions.
Nonetheless, the last year has been cumbersome and full of shocks in the industry as various personnel lost their jobs in the crypto sector due to the harsh market winter. Besides Coinbase, several other companies laid off their workforce, including Huobi, Bybit, and many more. Huobi crypto trading platform revealed its plan to cut off 20% of its workforce on January 6, citing the severe market conditions.
The Bybit CEO, Ben Zhou, also announced a reorganization plan after a second batch of layoffs in the exchange firm to survive the market winter. However, Coinbase is the latest platform to reveal staff reduction as various digital asset companies struggle to weather the crypto winter.
