TRON founder Justin Sun, rumored to be the shadow owner of Huobi Global, has confirmed that the crypto exchange is laying off a significant number of workers. This happened amid several rumors circulating in the crypto community, all of which ended with the conclusion that Huobi was reportedly bankrupt.
Sun Confirms Layoff Rumors
Over the past few days, there have been rumors circulating on the social media platform Twitter that Huobi is laying off staff. It has started when there were rumors that the exchange asked employees to take salary payments in stablecoins such as USDC or risk being fired.
Then in the last day, tweets appeared online that the crypto exchange had closed the communication channels for employees. One tweet carrying an image said that all intra-employee instant messaging apps had been shut down, and suggested that someone had been fired.
Huobi, one of the long-standing Chinese exchanges, seems to have exploded in real time, coincidentally with Justin Sun issuing $1.5+B in fiat since October according to the wallet he tagged.
Be safe guys. pic.twitter.com/7rVQdWLexe
— Eugene Ng 🌊 (I’m Hiring) (@Eug_Ng) January 6, 2023
This initially made the rounds on Twitter but there was no confirmation until Justin Sun told Reuters via text message on Friday morning that Huobi had indeed laid off 20% of its staff. About 300 workers are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the move, which Sun called a “structural adjustment” in a text message.
According to the founder of TRON, this adjustment has not been completed but it is expected to be in Q1 2023. He further explained that it will cause pain but only for a short period of time. In the end, he believed that this was the best exchange.
Huobi Takes a Hit
Coming hot on the heels of Justin Sun’s confirmation of Huobi’s layoff, the crypto exchange has seen its value tank in the market. It has seen an increase in withdrawals over the last day but trading volume has dropped by more than 20% at the time of this writing.
Huobi saw a trading volume of $1.2 billion, according to data aggregator CoinGecko, which is 22% lower than the previous day’s volume. The exchange’s reserves have also been questioned but a reserve proof page on Nansen shows that the exchange still has nearly $3 billion in customer deposits.
Huobi reserves at $.28 billion | Source: Nansen
Its original token, HT, which makes up a large percentage of its reserves took a hit in trading hours on Friday but saw a brief recovery. The coin’s price fell by 9.79% in the last week, but it gained a modest 0.67% in the last day.
HT is trading at $4.65 at the time of this writing. It is the 47th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $754 million.
HT Token price at $4.6 | Source: HTUSDT on TradingView.com