By Sidhartha Shukla
Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX is reducing its staff by 12%, after the platform’s revenues were hit by an ongoing slump in virtual currency trading.
As part of a drive to cut costs, the firm is also refocusing its strategy and investing in automation, CoinDCX’s founders Sumit Gupta & Neeraj Khandelwal said in a statement announcing the job cuts on Tuesday.
“Startups and businesses globally are going through challenging times due to tough macro conditions, more so in crypto because of the prolonged bear market and impact of TDS on domestic exchanges,” the statement said. “These factors had a significant impact on our volumes and thus revenues.”
Cryptocurrency trading platforms have seen volumes slump globally over the past year, but the decline has been particularly steep in India after the government introduced a 1% tax on crypto transactions in July 2022. Volumes on Indian crypto exchanges have collapsed more than 90% since then.
The transaction tax known as TDS, hurt market makers and high-frequency traders who accounted for a large share of trading volume.
Last year CoinDCX raised $135 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion from venture capital funds led by Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital Management LLC.
First Published: Aug 22 2023 | 9:47 PM IST
