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Despite widespread layoffs at Luno, Malaysian customer funds remain safe and the crypto exchange is continuing its operations as normal, country manager Aaron Tang told Blockhead.
The downsizing, which mainly affected the marketing department in Malaysia, will have minimal to no impact on its key operating and compliance units, Tang said.
"Luno’s firm commitment to maintaining a secure platform and meeting its regulatory and financial crime compliance obligations remains. We are also confident that the changes announced will not have any impact on the services received by Luno Malaysia’s customers," he added.
Earlier this week, Blockhead reported that Luno had become the latest company in the industry to undertake cost-cutting measures amid the current crypto winter, reducing its global headcount by 35%.
According to Luno's LinkedIn, it has a current headcount of approximately 960, which means that more than 330 jobs will be impacted.
Related: DCG's Luno Slashes Headcount as Liquidity Crisis Deepens
The UK-based digital assets exchange was first set up operations in Malaysia in 2015. By 2017, it had become the largest digital asset exchange in the country and was heavily involved in engagements with regulators around new cryptocurrency regulations for Malaysia.
It received full approval from the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) in 2019, making it the country’s first fully regulated crypto currency exchange platform. The company also holds in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services in the city-state.
Parent company in trouble?
Luno was founded in 2013 and acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG) in 2020, DCG further secured over US$700 million in a secondary funding round from investors including Google’s Capital G and GIC Singapore, valuing DCG at USD$10 billion.
Its parent company DCG is currently fighting several fires: according to a report by Cointelegraph, more than 500 employees working in the DCG group have been laid off so far, following the collapse of some of crypto's biggest players in 2022.
Last week Genesis Global Capital, another company under the DCG umbrella, filed for US bankruptcy, listing over 100,000 creditors, with aggregate liabilities ranging from US$1.2 billion to US$11 billion. Rumours of a potential insolvency also continue to swirl around Grayscale - the world's largest digital asset manager owned by DCG, while DCG-owned media outlet Coindesk is exploring a full or partial sale of its business.
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