Huobi Exchange Token Down 11% on Reports of Layoffs, Internal Strife at Company

As market concern grows about Huobi’s health, exchange volume has dropped by 23%.

Huobi’s exchange token and trading volume have suffered as a result of reports that it is drastically reducing headcount, requiring employees to take their salaries in stablecoins, and closing internal staff communication channels to quell a rebellion.

According to CoinGecko, Huobi’s HT token has dropped nearly 11% in the last 24 hours, to $4.67 as of morning East Asia time. The token has dropped nearly 30% in the last month.

The exchange’s measurement of normalised volume has dropped 23% in the last 24 hours, to $395 million from $510 million.

Colin Wu of WuBlockchain broke the news of the layoffs and the requirement to accept salary in stablecoins. Employees who refused to accept payment in cryptocurrency would be fired, according to WuBlockchain, raising concerns throughout the workforce. Others on Twitter reported that employees were barred from using internal communication channels.

Sun denied the Huobi layoffs in an interview with Hong Kong’s SCMP. Representatives from the media did not respond to CoinDesk’s requests for comment on staffing issues.

Concerns have also been raised about the quality of Huobi’s reserves following the FTX. According to a recent CryptoQuant report, Huobi is the exchange that relies the most on its own token to denominate its reserves. Approximately 60% of its reserves are based on assets other than the token. OKX and Derebit have the ‘cleanest’ reserves of any exchange, with 100%, according to CryptoQuant.