Crypto hiring: CoinDCX blames tax policy, bear market for layoffs

Coinbase and Binance have also significantly limited their staffing footprints in 2023

article-image

FOTOGRIN/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

CoinDCX cut 12% of its employees this week, joining the ranks of other centralized crypto exchanges that shrank their staffing costs this year.

CoinDesk reported that the Indian crypto exchange fired 71 employees out of some 590 staffers.

The founders of the Indian crypto exchange, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, published a blog post Tuesday explaining the reasons behind the significant layoffs this week. 

The two cited the “prolonged bear market” and financial crunches related to onerous crypto-specific taxes. 

Gupta and Khandelwal were referring to India’s crypto tax policy that was instituted in July 2022, which mandates investors pay a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS), in addition to a flat 30% tax on profits derived from crypto. 

Some exchanges saw 70% decreases in trading volumes in the week following the new legislation, a state of affairs the CoinDCX founders acknowledged was a catalyst for their decision to downsize.

“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,” they wrote in the post

India’s crypto tax policy was brought to the forefront again when the country’s lawmakers debated its national budget in the early months of 2023. However, the 30% profit tax and the 1% TDS were reaffirmed. The budget also introduced criminal penalties for not paying up TDS, including jail time of up to seven years. 

Other crypto exchanges have laid off significant numbers of employees this year. 

Coinbase kicked off 2023 by laying off 950 workers as part of a bid to shrink operating costs. This represented a 20% headcount reduction and came nine months after the company laid off 1,100 employees. 

Gemini and Luno both made significant cuts to their respective teams in January as well.

Binance, too, has aimed to reduce its numbers throughout the year. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Binance fired 1,000 employees over several weeks. 

While Binance has confirmed that layoffs took place, the company has yet to acknowledge the exact number of affected employees. 

Binance.US also cut staff shortly following the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing of a lawsuit against it. 

Alchemy hires former Stripe exec

Web3 development platform Alchemy said Thursday that it has hired Guillaume Poncin, Stripe’s former head of Web3 and crypto. 

Poncin will serve as Alchemy’s head of engineering. At Stripe, Poncin was responsible for that company’s fiat-to-crypto onramp products.

Poncin has also worked for Google and computer hardware manufacturer Osmo. 

Poncin explained in a short blog post that he joined Alchemy because he believes it’s where he’ll “have the most impact in amplifying the adoption of crypto.”

“We are still early in Web3. Right now, most things are difficult. Things break. There’s friction across most of the tech stack, both for developers and for users. But it’s getting better daily,” he wrote. 

Other notable hires


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Silk Road founder Ulbricht made a triumphant return to the Bitcoin Conference, 10 years on from sentencing

article-image

A Blockworks Research report looked at who could take up some of the marketshare in the launchpad space

article-image

Business-to-business stablecoin payments are on the rise, per a report from Artemis, Dragonfly and Castle Island

article-image

Crypto continues to do its thing: incentivizing behavior

article-image

Kraken will soon offer Backed ‘xStocks’ as Solana tokens

article-image

In a unanimous decision, the US Court of International Trade has ruled that Trump’s IEEPA tariffs are unlawful