Crypto lender Amber cuts 60% of workforce

[ad_1]

Amid the continued fallout from FTX’s collapse, one of Asia’s largest crypto lenders, Amber Group, is taking drastic cost-cutting measures.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Singapore-based company has canceled this year’s staff bonus and is laying off 60% of its workforce. According to an internal memo, the cost reduction was due to slower-than-expected business growth and market turbulence.

Members of their management team must give up all or part of their salary until the business environment improves. Amber Group had recently raised only halfway through a planned $100 million funding round.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Michael Wu, CEO of Amber, said that even before the collapse of FTX, we were preparing for a potentially prolonged crypto winter. The company is cutting costs and unfortunately there will be no bonuses this year.

Amber Group denied having any significant exposure to Alameda Research, although the company had been an active trader on the now defunct FTX exchange. However, they said less than 10% of its trading capital is locked up on the exchange.

Amber had apparently hired hundreds of workers in mainland China to work in coding, operations and product management, according to two unnamed former employees. They had been made redundant from an office in Shenzhen and had not signed a contract with the Singapore-based entity. This is despite the ban on cryptocurrency transactions on the Chinese mainland.

Until recently, Amber denied any issues

The company was originally founded by former Morgan Stanley traders. In recent weeks, the company has had to cancel its round sponsorship with Premier League club Chelsea FC. Plans for a new Metaverse platform were also deprioritized, and expansion into Europe and the United States was cancelled.

On December 6, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain claimed that Amber Group was on the verge of bankruptcy. After analyzing six Amber-linked Ethereum wallets, they found only $9.46 million in total assets. Annabelle Huang told the FT that much of her business is done in private.

1/ @ambergroup_io seems to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

We analyzed 6 Ethereum wallets from Amber and found:

– Assets of $9.46 million in total.

– Amber transferred ~$36M BUSD to Paxos and $10,422 ETH ($13.12M) to a new address.

– Amber traded 4 hours ago.https://t.co/vbHIlEvdJr

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 6, 2022

When the Financial Times visited the Amber Groups office in Hong Kong last week, the place was reportedly understaffed. There were also deliberate arrangements of withered white flowers, which is symbolic of mourning in Chinese culture. We don’t know if it was deliberate.

Disclaimer

BeInCrypto has reached out to a company or individual involved in the story for an official statement on recent developments, but has yet to receive a response.

[ad_2]