Circle, which is the issuer of USDC, is increasing its staff amid layoffs at other companies

According to The Wall Street Journal, crypto company Circle plans to increase its workforce by 15-25% in 2023. This translates to roughly 135-225 new hires, as the stablecoin issuer had approximately 900 employees at the end of 2022.

While many similar companies are laying off employees to address their financial problems, Circle is taking the opposite approach by hiring. The company's CFO, Jeremy Fox-Geen, stated that Circle is growing and has opportunities for investment.

Major cryptocurrency companies have significantly reduced their headcounts, including Polygon, Chainalysis, Bittrex, Huobi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Genesis, and Wyre. This was influenced by the prolonged crypto winter and several crypto-related crashes, which have wiped out billions from their balance sheets. However, large-scale layoffs have not been exclusive to the crypto industry. In January, about 48,000 people were laid off from just four companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

In December 2022, Circle mutually cancelled its plans to go public with SPAC company Concord Acquisition. SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is a type of company created solely for merging with another company planning to go public, but not wanting to go through the traditional IPO and all the preparatory processes involved. The agreement was announced in July 2021 with a preliminary valuation of $4.5 billion, and was later revised in February 2022 when Circle's valuation rose to $9 billion.

Jeremy Fox-Geen also stated that they still intend to go public, but are waiting for better market conditions. He added that the crypto industry needs to move away from scandals such as Terra and FTX, so that public market investors can re-evaluate the future of digital asset businesses.