Media: Indian exchange WazirX fired 40% of employees

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX laid off about 50-70 out of 150 employees, which accounted for 40% of the company’s staff, to stabilize its work during the economic downturn.

This was reported by the local edition of Outlook India, citing a former WazirX employee who wished to remain anonymous. The current economic downturn has a negative impact on the cryptocurrency market. In addition, the policy of Indian regulators has tightened, which check cryptocurrency platforms for assistance to foreign organizations in laundering money through crypto assets.

Together, these factors led to a sharp drop in trading volumes on Indian exchanges, so WazirX was forced to cut just under half of its staff in order to survive the crypto winter. As compensation, laid-off employees should receive 45 days’ advance payment, a former employee of the marketplace said.

WazirX’s trading volume fell 94.23% between August and September, according to data provided by market research firm CREBACO in Outlook Money. According to CoinGecko data, daily trading volume on the site has declined from a peak of $478 million in October 2021 to $1.5 million as of October 1, 2022.

In addition, WazirX has been under pressure from the Enforcement Authority of India (ED) for some time. In early August, the agency blocked the exchange’s assets in the amount of $8.14 million for refusing to assist law enforcement officers investigating cases of cryptocurrency fraud.

ED also raided the premises of one of the directors of WazirX’s Zanmai Labs, suspecting the exchange of violating Foreign Exchange Acts (FEMA). However, in September, the regulator lifted the imposed restrictions and allowed the exchange to continue its banking operations.

Recently, ED froze 77.6 BTC, which were transferred from WazirX to Binance. According to investigators, these crypto assets are linked to the fraudulent gaming mobile application E-nuggets.