Indian Crypto Exchange CoinDCX Is Cutting 12% of Jobs as Bear Market, Taxes Take Their Toll

CoinDCX, one of India’s most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, is cutting about 12% of its staff as the prolonged bear market and India’s tax policies hit revenue.

The exchange is laying off 71 employees whose roles do not fit into current business priorities, a company spokesperson told CoinDesk on Tuesday. The Mumbai-based company, founded by Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta in 2018, has about 590 employees. Several teams were affected by the job losses.

India has imposed stiff taxes on crypto, including a 30% tax on crypto profits and the more controversial 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions since Feb. 1 2022. The TDS, in particular, and global bear market in crypto have severely impacted trading volumes and therefore revenue, pushing the country’s crypto exchanges into survival mode. Khandelwal told CoinDesk in May that CoinDCX had enough cash to keep operating for four years.

“Startups and businesses globally are going through challenging times due to tough macro conditions, more so in crypto because of the prolonged bear market and impact of TDS on domestic exchanges,” the company said in a statement. “These factors had a significant impact on our volumes and thus revenues … we have made the difficult decision to resize certain teams and to steer the business towards a profitable and sustainable growth.”

“Today marked one of the most difficult moments for me and Neeraj in our journey at CoinDCX,” Gupta wrote in a LinkedIn post. “We had to make a tough choice that involved bidding farewell to some of our brilliant and dedicated team members at CoinDCX. We are deeply sorry for this, and we bear its weight, both in responsibility and in emotion.”

UPDATE (Aug. 22, 09:13 UTC): Adds tax regime in third paragraph, founder’s statement; changes lead image.