WazirX, a cryptocurrency platform based in India, has laid off several employees, a move that is aimed at keeping the exchange financially stable amid the current market downturn. Three sources with knowledge disclosed the matter on Saturday.

According to sources, WazirX laid off 50-70 employees or 40% of the exchange’s 150-strong workforce on Friday. The laid-off workers were told they would be paid for 45 days, would not be required to report to work thereafter, and were immediately blocked from work.

One of the sources said that the exchange reduced the workforce of several departments, including customer service, human resources and other departments. Managers, analysts, and associate managers/team leaders were among those who faced the axe.

Another source who lost his job claimed that the entire public policy and communication team was fired. Another WazirX employee who “abruptly” lost his job on Friday recounted that the company was never transparent about its financial situation, neither when it was doing well nor when it was in trouble.

According to CoinGecko data, WazirX daily trading volumes have been steadily declining from a high of 478 million on Oct 28, 2021 to 1.5 million on Oct 1, 2022. On some days, trading volumes have been less than a million, and “this is not enough to support operations,” the sources said.

In a statement on Saturday, WazirX said: “The crypto market has been in the grip of a bear market due to the current global economic downturn. The Indian crypto industry has had its unique issues regarding taxes, regulations and banking access. This has led to a dramatic drop in volumes across all Indian cryptocurrency exchanges.”

The decline in trading volumes began shortly after the implementation of strict cryptocurrency tax laws in India in July 2022. On July 1, the Indian government issued a harsh new cryptocurrency tax, imposing a 1% levy. on all cryptocurrency transactions. Since then, trading on the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges has collapsed. Trading volume on Indian exchange WazirX is down 68% since the law came into force. On other popular exchanges in the country such as CoinDCX and ZebPay, trading volume also decreased by 83% and 16%, respectively.

In recent days, WazirX has been facing a series of issues that led to a significant decrease in its trading volumes. Earlier last month, WazirX was in trouble after Binance claimed that he does not own shares in Zanmai Labs, the entity that operates WazirX.

Binance issued the statement hours after India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze WazirX’s bank accounts and raided its facilities due to concerns implicating the Indian exchange with money laundering issues.

According to data from CoinGecko, WazirX’s daily trading volumes fell to less than 2 million after the ownership dispute and regulatory crackdown, from a peak of daily trading volumes of around 5 million.

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