Australian Crypto Exchange Banxa Cuts 70 Staff

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Crypto exchange Banxa (BNXA) has cut over 70 jobs in anticipation of a steep market downturn, Australian Financial Review reported Monday.

• The move represents 30% of the Melbourne-based company's workforce, AFR said. The company's headcount peaked at more than 230 employees last year when the crypto market hit record highs.

• “Banxa must take decisive actions to reduce costs now, or else our company won’t be able to succeed over the long run," CEO Holger Arians said in a letter to employees, according to AFR. The decision was conveyed to staff last Wednesday, with Arians telling employees that the company grew too quickly and that extensive redundancy would occur as market conditions worsened.

• Affected employees include European managing director Jan Lorenc.

• The 2014-founded company has been publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s early-stage TSX Venture Exchange since January 2021. The shares have fallen some 74% in the past year amid a steep decline in crypto and equity markets. They closed Friday at C$1.04, giving the company a market value of about C$46.5 million ($36 million).

• Banxa's joins other crypto companies reducing headcount in an effort to save costs as bitcoin prices fall, causing a decline in customer sentiment and trading volumes. In the past month alone, Coinbase cut over a fifth of its workforce, while Crypto.com, Gemini and lending platform BlockFi also announcing layoffs.