Binance Cuts Back Employee Benefits, Citing Decline in Profit

livemint.com:

Binance slashed its employee benefits last month in the wake of falling profit, a sign of the financial strain hitting the crypto giant. The company told employees that it would stop offering certainbenefits, effective June 19, including mobile-phone reimbursement, fitness reimbursement and work-from-home expenses, among other items, according to former employees and a message from Binance’s internal messenger viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Considering the current market environment and regulatory climate that has unfortunately led to a decline in profit, we have to be more prudent with our spending," the message read.

It added that more cost-cutting could come. The company cut more than 1,000 employees in recent weeks and has plans to cut more, the Journal reported Friday. Several hundred additional customer-service employees were cut last week, former employees said.

In a company meeting Friday—Binance’s sixth anniversary—founder and Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao told staffers that Binance was still profitable and had experienced no effect from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, according to people who attended the meeting. Yet Zhao also said that there could be additional layoffs every three to six months and that he wasn’t sure if and when benefits would be reinstated. A Binance spokesman said the company is “looking at certain products, business units, staff benefits and policies to ensure our resources are allocated properly to reflect the evolving demands of users and regulators." Lawsuits from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the SEC have taken a toll on Binance’s bottom line.