Singapore based crypto unicorn Amber Group slashes Hong Kong workforce
Categories: Crypto News
Singapore-basedcrypto unicorn Amber Group slashes Hong Kong workforce
Singapore-baseddigital asset manager Amber Group has cut its Hong Kong staff by half to 40, shedding jobs in risk management,audit and compliance, to try and weather a slump in cryptocurrency prices and acascade of bankruptcies in the industry, according to a report by the SouthChina Morning Post on Wednesday that cited a person familiar with thedevelopments.
The SCMPreport said Amber had cut its compliance workforce in Hong Kong to five from 20people and made their entire auditing team redundant. It did not mention theSingapore headquarter operations or the total number of staff at Amber.
Paymentsto many of the company's third-party vendors have been delayed in some cases by up to six months,the report said, citing a person who declined to be identified as they are notauthorized to talk with the media.
The reportsaid Amber, which was founded in 2017 in Hong Kong and later moved its headoffice to Singapore, had told the SCMP on Jan. 13 that it had 100 employees inHong Kong and that it was "preparing itself for an extremely conservativeposition."
Amber, whoseinventors include Sequoia Capital China and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, hadmoved its local offices from Hong Kong's central business district to lowerpriced facilities in Causeway Bay to reduce costs, according to the report.
Amber shutits crypto exchange WhaleFin in December, and canceled the exchange's £20million ($25 million) a year advertising deal with the English Premier Leaguesoccer team Chelsea FC for the 2022-23 season.
Amber shutits crypto exchange WhaleFin in December, and canceled the exchange's £20million ($25 million) a year advertising deal with the English Premier Leaguesoccer team Chelsea FC for the 2022-23 season, according to an earlierBloomberg report.
Amber becamea unicorn, a privately-owned startup with a valuation of over US$1 billion, inJune 2021 after closing a US$100 million Series B fundraising round and statingplans to go public within a few years.
Followingthe failure of the Bahamas-based FTX cryptocurrency exchange in November, theBlockFi Inc. exchange declared bankruptcy, and around the same time HongKong-based exchange AAX shut down customer services with reports it is unlikelyto open again. On Thursday morning it was reported that U.S.-based cryptolender Genesis was preparing to file for bankruptcy.
Last week,the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc., cut its remainingworkforce by a further 20%.
The totalcrypto market capitalization has slumped 56% from a year ago to US$966 billion.