USDC issuer Circle to increase staff by up to 25% amid layoff season

Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), plans to increase its workforce by 15-25% in 2023, amid a wave of job cuts across the industry. report Wall Street Journal.

At a time when a good chunk of companies across the industry were laying off staff to ease their financial woes, Circle bucked the tide to hire more people.

41% of all layoffs in 2023 will come from the cryptocurrency industry. Major cryptocurrency companies that have significantly cut their workforce include Polygon, Chainalysis, Bittrex, Huobi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Genesis and Wyre.

A key factor in crypto companies cutting their workforces has been a prolonged crypto winter and the implosion of several cryptocurrencies that have wiped billions of dollars off the balance sheets of numerous affiliates. But the massive job cuts in the cryptocurrency industry weren’t in isolation. About 48,000 people were laid off in January from just four companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

The decision to increase Circle’s workforce comes just months after it canceled its public debut. In December 2022, Circle mutually terminated its public offering plans with Concord Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal was announced at his $4.5 billion preliminary valuation in July 2021 and was revised in February 2022, ballooning Circle’s valuation to his $9 billion.

Circle’s chief financial officer, Jeremy Fox-Geen, said the company still intends to go public, but is waiting for better market conditions. He added that the crypto industry needs to move further away from the implosion of Terra and FTX for public market investors to reassess the future of digital asset businesses.

RELATED: Despite Bitcoin’s Rise, Crypto Firms Cut Nearly 3,000 Jobs in January

By the end of 2022, the stablecoin issuer will have about 900 employees, and plans to increase its headcount by 135 to 225 in 2023. However, headcount growth has slowed since 2021, when he more than doubled from 2022.

USDC, issued by Circle, is currently the second largest stablecoin after Tether (USDT) with a market capitalization of $42 billion.