Crypto exchange Binance seeks to boost staff by up to 30% in 2023, CEO says

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance appears to be bucking the lingering market downturn as its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, mapped out his goals to grow the company's headcount by 15% to 30% in 2023, The Block reported Wednesday, citing his remarks at a conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland. While a long list of crypto-related firms in 2022 implemented job cuts to better manage costs, Binance's workforce grew nearly 3x last year to 8K from 3K, the crypto mogul noted. Zhao also introduced plans involving improving technology, investing more in customer support, and enhancing the crypto-exchange operator, The Block noted. His comments came a day after rival Coinbase Global ( COIN ) made another round of layoffs to navigate the crypto downturn, in a move that prompted a Bank of America analyst to downgrade COIN to Underperform. Late last year, Kraken, another crypto exchange, said it laid off 30% of staff amid "significantly lower trading volumes and fewer client sign-ups." Binance, though, is having problems of its own. Nearly one-quarter of its assets have been lost in the two months since the collapse of FTX ( FTT-USD ).