Wall Street Watchdog FINRA Wishes To Hire Laid-Off Crypto Employees: All You Need To Know

“Anybody who is getting laid off from a crypto platform and wants to work for FINRA, give me a call,” said FINRA CEO Robert Cook.

FINRA is planning to increase its resources as more and more of its members are jumping onto the crypto bandwagon ( Image Source :Getty )

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, popularly known as FINRA, wishes to hire laid-off employees of crypto companies to help it understand and monitor cryptocurrencies better. The regulatory body is planning to increase its resources as more and more of its members are jumping onto the crypto bandwagon in terms of trading digital assets. "We are already having to be engaged in the space and we think that as a result, it's appropriate for us to bulk up our capabilities there," FINRA CEO Robert Cook said at a trading industry conference on Tuesday.

According to Cook, FINRA has several members who have been approved to trade digital asset securities. It also has members who allow their customers to access crypto offerings, as well as members who have registered representatives with external activities around crypto.

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Cook also said that FINRA is currently looking to conduct cross-market surveillance on different blockchains, so it is developing some digital asset verification techniques. FINRA will most likely have a major role to play as US federal agencies look to ve the primary regulator for digital assets, as per Cook.

"We're going to need to be engaged and prepared to have the resources to do that, so anybody who is getting laid off from a crypto platform and wants to work for FINRA, give me a call,” said Cook.

Cook’s comments come at a time when not only the crypto market is facing an unprecedented meltdown, but crypto exchanges are also laying off thousands of employees to cut costs.

ALSO SEE: Coinbase Lays Off 1,100 Employees, 8 Percent Of India Team Affected; Axed Employee Shares Emotional Post

Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US by trading volume and the first crypto company to get listed on Fortune 500, has laid off around 18 percent of its global workforce on Tuesday. A total of about 1,100 employees were let go. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted, “The broader market downturn means that we need to be more mindful of costs as we head into a potential recession.”

ALSO SEE: EXPLAINED | Bitcoin Price Crashes To Record Low As Crypto Bloodbath Continues: Why Is The Market Plunging? What Should Investors Keep In Mind?

Apart from Coinbase, crypto lending company BlockFi laid off "roughly 20 percent" of its workforce. "This decision was driven by market conditions that have had a negative impact on our growth rate and a rigorous review of our strategic priorities," the firm's founders said in a blog post.

Exchange platform Crypto.com will also be letting go of approximately 5 percent of its workforce, CEO Kris Marszalek tweeted. "We will continue to evaluate how to best optimise our resources to position ourselves as the strongest builders during the down cycle to become the biggest winners during the next bull run," Marszalek wrote.

As others are letting employees go, Binance is hiring

While most crypto platforms are laying off employees, the world's biggest crypto exchange Binance announced that it is hiring. CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter on June 15 to announce, "Today, we are hiring for 2,000 open positions."

It was not easy saying no to Super bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did.

Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for #Binance. pic.twitter.com/n24nrUik8O

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 15, 2022

Zhao took a shot at Coinbase's Super Bowl ad this year and the layoffs later on, as he wrote, "It was not easy saying no to Super Bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did."