Indian crypto exchanges CoinSwitch, CoinDCX cut staff amid market slump

The CoinSwitch crypto exchange is the latest crypto trading platform in India that cut its workforce amid the prolonged cryptocurrency winter, the local news agency Moneycontrol reported on Aug. 28.

The crypto exchange reportedly laid off 44 employees from its customer support division in August, citing redundancy in roles amid the bear market-triggered lack of customer queries.

“We continuously evaluate our business to stay competitive, prioritizing innovation, value, and service for our customers. To that end, we right-sized our customer support team to align with the present volume of customer queries on our platform,” CoinSwitch said. The firm added that this impacted the roles of 44 members of its support team, who “voluntarily resigned from their roles after a detailed discussion with their managers.”

44 employees account for a significant share — or roughly 8% — of CoinSwitch’s total headcount. According to CoinSwitch’s LinkedIn page, the firm has 519 employees at the time of writing. The firm didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request to comment.

The news about CoinSwitch’s layoffs came just about a week after another major local exchange, CoinDCX, also cut its staff by 12%. According to LinkedIn, the firm employs 730 people at the time of writing.

“We are making the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 12% and some of our incredibly talented team members will be parting ways with the organization,” CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal announced on Aug. 22.

The CoinDCX founders also referred to market challenges, adding that domestic exchanges have also encountered the impact of the 1% tax deducted at source (TDS), which targets local crypto exchanges. They wrote:

“These factors had a significant impact on our volumes and thus revenues. To adapt, we undertook several proactive measures, including direct cost optimization and investment in automation to drive efficiency and productivity.”

According to the announcement, the impacted CoinDCX employees were promised to receive a support package of severance pay equivalent to the full notice period, additional one month of salary, extension of health insurance and other support.

As previously reported, India imposed a 30% tax on crypto gains in 2022, which resulted in a massive exodus of cryptocurrency service providers and a sharp decline in crypto trading activity. The country has also adopted a 1% TDS by crypto exchanges, meaning that exchanges are obliged to pay 1% on all transfers of crypto assets.

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions — Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon