US-based crypto exchange Bittrex has cut around 30% of its workforce, citing the "unexpected macroeconomic conditions" that happened at the end of 2022 as the reason for the cuts.
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According to a filing with the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, the exchange laid off 83 people out of 284 employees. As per a leaked email on Twitter, Bittrex Chief Executive, Richie Lai, said the company had to make the decision to "ensure the long-term viability."
"The market downturn triggered by multiple failures in the crypto ecosystem became an outright collapse by the end of the year. These events have caused us to reset our strategy," Lai added.
In October last year, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) alongside Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fined Bittrex $24 million and $29 million, respectively.
The regulators said that the Seattle-based cryptocurrency exchange failed to meet requirements of multiple sanctions programs and violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
Bittrex particularly failed to prevent traders from sanctioned regions from using its platform to engage in approximately $263.4 million worth of crypto trades between 2014 and 2017 even though it knew about these customers based on their IPs.
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