Fidelity-Backed Crypto Platform Cuts Staff Due to Market Pressure

OSL, a Hong Kong-based digital asset exchange, is cutting roughly a third of its costs following months of turbulence in the crypto market. 

That includes staff cuts – though the firm did not reveal how large a portion of its workforce was laid off. 

• OSL provides crypto trading and custody services alongside software solutions for institutional clients. 
• Hugh Madden, CEO of OSL’s parent company BC Technology Group, specified in a statement on Tuesday that the exchange cut costs due “to current market conditions” which included “headcount reduction,” according to Bloomberg.
• It’s far from the only exchange to take such measures. NFT Marketplace OpenSea dismissed 20% of its staff in July, while Cryptocom laid off an equivalent slice of its workforce just last week. 
• Coinbase has undertaken two roughly equivalent layoffs this cycle – once in June, and again earlier this month. 
• The so-called “crypto winter” raged throughout the second half of 2022, ushering in plummeting crypto asset prices and multiple high-profile bankruptcies. The collapse of rival exchange FTX in November was the most prominent, whose failure is still sending shockwaves throughout the industry. 
• OSL is backed by Fidelity – the asset management giant that has launched numerous products related to Bitcoin and Ethereum investing. 
• Last year, Fidelity launched a product to let its clients add Bitcoin to their retirement accounts, comprising up to 20% of their portfolio.