Amber Group is reportedly layoff its employees again and asking the remaining staff in China to work from their homes.

Prominent digital asset trading platform Amber Group is reportedly laying off hundreds of its employees again, according to WuBlockchain.

Amber Group Asks Chinese Employees to Work From Home

From posting a +25% YoY revenue increase in the first half of 2022, Amber Group went on to dismiss about 10% of its workforce in September, citing regular business adjustments and the impact of the cryptocurrency winter following Luna/3AC/lending firm collapses. With the FTX crash, the situation seems quite dire.

In addition to laying off hundreds of its remaining staff, Amber Group appears to be closing down its Chinese office as it asked employees to work from their respective homes, which is probably due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown order in China.

On November 9, Amber Group admitted exposure to FTX, saying it was among the active trading participants on the exchange before the collapse. The company claimed that 10% of its assets had been trapped on the bankrupt exchange, but it doesn’t threaten business operations or liquidity.

“We have no exposure to Alameda or $FTT. But similar to most trading firms, we have been an active trading participant on FTX. […] However, with strict exposure limits on individual trading venues, this represents <10% of our total trading capital,” Amber Group said on Twitter.

Amber Group Recently Lost Its Co-Founder

Before FTX’s collapse, Amber Group had attempted to raise about $100 million in fresh funding at a $3 billion valuation. According to people familiar with the matter, the company had planned to raise a much larger fund at a $10 billion valuation in May but backtracked due to the cryptocurrency bear market.

The company had to deal with another situation: the mysterious death of the co-founder Tiantian Kullander in late November. Kullander reportedly died at age 30 while sleeping.

（By Ibiam Wayas）