It has been almost a year since the "FTX incident" occurred. Many people will say that since the collapse of FTX in 2022, the currency circle seems to have been in a state of decline. In fact, the impact on market development is never limited to a single factor. Looking at the global economy, since COVID-19 -19 has swept the world and the Federal Reserve has taken a series of interest rate hikes. The economies of major countries are still in the slow recovery stage. The traditional technology industry and the financial industry are especially facing various pressures. We can get a glimpse of this from the news of layoffs from major companies. For the currency circle, in addition to facing a series of regulatory pressures brought about by the post-FTX era, it is also affected by the impact of the global macro economy. Take Binance, the most representative company in the crypto industry, as an example. Faced with the multiple challenges of the global political and economic situation and industry difficulties, how did it make the company more flexible through active organizational adjustments or changes in direction and strategy? Facing various internal and external tests also deserves our attention.
There is a wave of layoffs in all walks of life, and the Federal Reserve is also calling for layoffs
According to "Bloomberg", in the first six months of this year, major U.S. banks, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group, have laid off 21,000 people. Some banks may increase layoffs in the second half of the year, even if the crisis has a huge impact on the global economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) has also reported that it will lay off about 300 people this year, the first time it has laid off staff since 2010. As for the technology industry, according to data from Layoffs.fyi, more than 210,000 employees in the global technology industry have been laid off so far this year. The number in the first half of the year alone has exceeded the entire last year.
Image source: Reuters
Social media giant Meta has also made major adjustments and optimizations to its organizational structure this year. Its CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 2023 is the "year of efficiency" and his company will eliminate middle management positions and flatten the organizational structure to speed up decision-making. process. However, even organizational optimization has two sides to the same coin. While facing up to poor organizational efficiency, it also releases a signal to the market to streamline costs. In the five months after Meta announced its first round of layoffs, its stock price soared 170%, and the same script continues to happen in other companies.
With the current pressure and worries about interest rate hikes shrouding the entire financial market, it is difficult for any industry to be immune. Even if the topic of AI has become a big hit this year and once became a "money-attracting" keyword in the market, it is not difficult to find that traditional finance Large companies and technology giants are laying off employees and "downsizing." Affected by the global financial environment, it seems that it is an inevitable step to reduce expenditures or reorganize organizations.
As regulations become tighter and macroeconomic impacts are compounded, the crypto market also seeks to streamline and slim down.
For the currency circle, it can be said that the crypto industry faces an unprecedented crisis from 2022 to 2023. It is also affected by the macroeconomic impact, and a series of projects and exchanges collapse suddenly. From well-known giants to new startups, everyone from well-known giants to new startups are affected to varying degrees. impact. Well-known encryption companies such as Coinbase, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, Circle, Dapper Labs, etc. have successively carried out layoffs or personnel changes to varying degrees in 2023.
According to an industry research report published by CoinMarketCap, the total spot trading volume of the top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges in the second quarter of 2023 was US$1.67 trillion, a decrease of 36% from the first quarter. The report stated that this reflects the slowdown in the activity of the cryptocurrency trading market. . On the other hand, as the U.S. authorities tighten their supervision of the cryptocurrency industry, we can see even weaker trading in the third quarter of 2023. According to statistics from more than 30 trading platforms tracked by The Block, by July Monthly trading volume declined in September. The increasingly stringent regulatory environment has caused the industry to face unprecedented challenges. At the same time, it has also tested how business operators can lead their organizations through this long and arduous winter.
An industry research report published by CoinMarketCap stated that the total spot trading volume of the top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges in the second quarter of 2023 was $1.67 trillion, a 36% decrease from the first quarter.
But it is conceivable that this will be a common dilemma faced by all crypto companies, and this is especially true for the industry benchmark company Binance. Not only is it subject to more stringent scrutiny than other peers, but any disturbance can also easily cause social problems. Even normal organizational adjustments or personnel changes in other industries may cause various FUD. However, to be fair, compared to other financial or technology industry giants, it is no different from the current approach taken by Binance, and there is no need to over-interpret it.
In addition, it is worth noting that, judging from various third-party data, Binance still ranks first in indicators such as market share or transaction volume, and its popularity remains undiminished despite the haze of regulation. Binance founder and CEO CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed in August that the number of registered users worldwide has exceeded 150 million. This shows that despite constant rumors in the market, users and the community still have strong confidence in Binance.
Facing the market downturn and FUD, what does crypto giant Binance do?
"Organizational changes are part of the normal operations of financial and technology companies and do not mean there is a problem with the company itself. Especially when companies are under the pressure of the global economic downturn, spending reductions or organizational restructuring are inevitable steps."
As the world's largest exchange by trading volume, a crypto giant with more than 150 million registered users and approximately 8,000 employees at its peak, Binance is the largest company in the industry at every level, just like Wall Street financial giants and Silicon Valley. As a major technology company, how its management can maintain flexibility and flexibility for the organization is a major issue for the long-term development of Binance. Especially in an industry with relatively high volatility, if Binance does not quickly adjust its organization to improve efficiency in the current environment, it is likely that it will not be able to face the next external challenges.
In fact, if we take a closer look at Binance’s recent actions in the market, it is not difficult to find that in addition to adjustments to organizational personnel, Binance has also made full progress on the product side, starting from the most basic product UX/UI updates. , to the launch of the "copy trading" function and the upgrade of the Web3 one-stop social platform "Binance Plaza", all show that Binance invested more resources in upgrading its products and services during the bear market, and This is also in line with what Binance co-founder He Yi said in an internal letter published earlier, that its goal will be to "create excellent products and services."
In the same scenario, Binance may be compared with another technology giant "X" (formerly Twitter). Especially after Elon Musk acquired Yaccarino publicly stated that X is close to breaking even and is on track to become profitable in early 2024. Interestingly, Elon Musk commented on an It was also retweeted by Zhao Changpeng, who meaningfully pointed out that the content "is not only applicable to X". The founders of two completely different industries seem to be used to facing market rumors, and they show a sense of sympathy for each other.
After the short-term market FUD, users may be optimistic about whether Binance, after undergoing a series of organizational adjustments and product upgrades, can bring a different experience to users, thereby creating explosive changes in the market and even injecting more vitality. , just like in the cold winter of 2019, Binance’s IEO brought a bull market to the market.
Conclusion
In the emerging industries of blockchain and virtual assets, the speed of change is faster than that of other industries. How to maintain the flatness and flexibility of the organization to face the impact of the external environment is even more important. As a leader in the crypto industry, Binance’s external pressure is believed to far exceed that of its peers in terms of various indicators, such as the size of users and the scale of funds processed. As Changpeng Zhao stated in his sixth anniversary letter, “Binance We are taking a road that no one has gone before."
It can be expected that this road will not be smooth sailing. For Binance management, this is also testing their wisdom on how to build an everlasting system to help Binance ensure the health and long-term development of the organization. Not only Users are paying attention, and the outside world is waiting to see how they lead Binance, and even the entire crypto industry, to move forward.
He Yi once shared in a live broadcast event, "As a good leader, you should focus on output and organizational health. Many people are good at management, but do not really focus on result-driven. As for organizational health, I spent A lot of time to do research and try to build a healthy organization. The first step is transparency. When your team has enough transparency, your team members will understand what they are doing. The second part is to make sure it is fair. You can be fair and transparent and everyone will focus on their job.”
As for how far Binance can lead the industry? You may still need to travel through another round of bulls and bears to see the real chapter.
Statement: The article only represents the author's personal views and opinions, and does not represent the objective views and positions of the blockchain. All contents and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investors should make their own decisions and transactions, and the author and Blockchain Client will not be held responsible for any direct or indirect losses caused by investors' transactions.
This article: At the crossroads of the global economy, how do major Web3 technology companies prepare for the bull market? First appeared in Block Guest.