Singapore-Based Crypto Unicorn Amber Group Is Shrinking Hong Kong Workforce, SCMP Reports

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Singapore-based digital asset manager Amber Group has halved its staff in Hong Kong to 40, cutting jobs in risk management, audit and compliance, in a bid to weather a price crash of cryptocurrency and a cascade of industry bankruptcies, according to a South China Morning Post report on Wednesday citing a person familiar with the developments.

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Fast facts

The SCMP report says Amber cut its compliance staff in Hong Kong to five out of 20 people and laid off its entire audit team. He did not mention Singapore headquarters operations or the total number of Amber employees.

Payments to many of the company’s third-party vendors have been delayed, in some cases for up to six months, the report said, citing a person who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the media.

The report said Amber, which was founded in 2017 in Hong Kong and later moved its headquarters to Singapore, told SCMP on January 13 that it had 100 employees in Hong Kong and was preparing for a extremely conservative position.

Amber, whose inventors include Sequoia Capital China and Singapores Temasek Holdings, had moved its local offices from Hong Kong’s central business district to low-cost facilities in Causeway Bay to cut costs, according to the report.

Amber shut down her WhaleFin crypto exchange in December and canceled $20 million ($25 million) a year swaps with English Premier League soccer team Chelsea FC for the 2022-23 season, according to a previous report. from Bloomberg.

Amber became a unicorn, a private startup with a valuation of over US$1 billion, in June 2021 after closing a US$100 million Series B fundraising round and announcing plans to go public within a few years.

Following the failure of Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November, exchange BlockFi Inc. declared bankruptcy, and around the same time, Hong Kong-based exchange AAX shut down services. to customers with reports that it is unlikely to reopen. On Thursday morning, it was reported that US-based crypto lender Genesis was preparing to file for bankruptcy.

Last week, the largest US-based crypto exchange, Coinbase Global Inc., reduced its remaining workforce by another 20%.

The total crypto market cap fell 56% from a year ago to $966 billion.

See related article: Hong Kong arrests two people for alleged involvement in AAX digital asset fraud

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