The South China Morning Post reports that Justin Sun has said that crypto exchange Huobi is not doing mass layoffs. January 2nd.
The South China Morning Post cited an earlier report from Chinese business news outlet Jiemian, which obtained an internal statement from Sun. The report, presumably written in Chinese, could not be found.
However, Sun’s statement is directly quoted in other sources. Sun said:
“The Huobi layoff plan shared by the media is not correct… Huobi’s business has been growing very well lately, with new entrants rising to the top of the industry every day. , and we believe 2023 will be even better.”
Sun’s claims refute an unconfirmed Huobi insider’s statement that layoff rumors are “somewhat credible” and that job cuts are underway.
Rumors of Huobi’s mass layoffs originated from Colin Wu, who runs cryptocurrency news site Wu Blockchain.Wu first reported December 30th Huobi suspending year-end bonuses. He also said the company would cut its workforce from his 1,200 to his 600 or 800 and cut salaries for senior employees.
Wu does not cite any sources for these claims. Nevertheless, reports of the layoffs were circulated by other sites, including competing exchange Binance.
Wu has repeatedly spread rumors of impending Huobi layoffs since at least July last year. Huobi denied these rumors when Wu redistributed his claims in November. At the time, a representative said, “Rumors of massive layoffs are not true.”
It doesn’t look like the rumored layoffs actually took place, but Huobi could have quietly enacted those layoffs or postponed the issue.
Sun’s statement this week is perhaps the most authoritative. Sun, who is best known as the founder and CEO of the TRON blockchain, left the project in late 2021, eventually joining Huobi as an advisor in October 2022. Sun probably has a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the company.
In addition to his main statement, Sun said: December 29th Huobi’s hiring of female employees as part of its commitment to diversity. However, this announcement does not indicate an overall increase in Huobi’s workforce.
Sun also commented on an unrelated topic— Gemini’s debt crisis— on Twitter today. He called the current situation “a difficult time for the entire cryptocurrency industry” and said Huobi stands by the cryptocurrency community.
