The global crypto market, currently going through a slump, could lose community members who are not in the mood for risky investments at the time. This impact of the slowdown was highlighted by crypto exchange CoinSwitch after it laid off 44 members of its customer service team earlier this month due to a drop in customer inquiries. The company is now one of many facing the brunt of dealing with volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies, especially due to the lack of rules and regulations aimed at overseeing the sector.
Founded in 2017, CoinSwitch is a Bengaluru-based crypto exchange that claims to serve more than 18 million users. “The number of questions from our users has dropped to just ten percent of what they were a year ago. People who have contacted us usually have questions about their KYC verifications,” a company official told Gadgets 360.
“We are constantly evaluating our business to remain competitive, prioritizing innovation, value and service for our customers. That’s why we’ve tailored our customer service team to match the current volume of customer inquiries on our platform. This affected the role of 44 members of our customer service team, who voluntarily resigned after a detailed discussion with their managers earlier this month,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Over the past year, many members of the support team have been moved to other roles based on their skillset suitability for the other roles. We are expanding all of our support to affected employees. As volumes grow and we open new roles, we will would like to welcome those affected again.”
Back-to-back rate hikes in the US and the successive attacks on crypto players such as Binance and Coinbase by the US SEC have also acted as factors that have slowed the market momentum for cryptocurrencies in recent months. Currently, the total limit of the crypto market stands at $1.05 trillion (approximately Rs. 86,80,402 crore), which is hanging by a thread from the psychologically significant one trillion dollar mark.
Earlier this month, Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX announced the layoff of 12 percent of its workforce, blaming the country’s tax regime for pushing investors away.
The crypto exchange said in its official statement that India’s TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) deduction on every crypto transaction has slowed its operations, especially during the ongoing bear market. A total of 71 people lost their jobs at CoinDCX during the recent round of layoffs.
On an international level, KuCoin, Binance, Genesis and Huobi also laid off staff members between January and August this year, under pressure from the market.
