Circle CEO Announces Eliminating Ten Percent of Staff Citing Regulatory Certainty as Reason

Circle CEO Announces Eliminating Ten Percent of Staff Citing Regulatory Certainty as Reason

Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, the company behind the famous Poloniex exchange and the USDC stablecoin, tweeted May 22, 2019, that the company was laying off ten percent of their staff at Circle as a result of the restrictive regulatory framework in the United States.

The U.S. Needs a More Balanced Crypto Policy

After the May 17 update where Poloniex announced the geofencing of nine assets from the United States, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has sent out another announcement stating that the company was slashing their staff by ten percent. Some unfilled positions at the company were also eliminated. Explaining the cause for this decision, Allaire pointed toward the “increasingly restrictive regulatory climate in the United States.”

Circle and its team seem to be in constant conflict with the regulatory climate in America as Allaire explained in his Medium blog published on May 21. He wrote that innovators of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies from around the globe have tried their best to keep up with laws by making all necessary reforms, but the regulation itself has failed to keep pace with the growth.

The company is now looking forward to driving business in countries that offer crypto-friendly regulations while also making efforts to lead the U.S. government to create “a more balanced crypto policy” in the country.

While these updates from Circle raise concerns about the company’s stability, a report from The Block Crypto quoted a source from Circle saying that the company has been profitable in the recent past with $2 billion in notional volume year-to-date.

Taking the Fight to Congress

In his blog, Allaire cited that the SEC’s recent guidance prompted more questions than answers and despite innovators moving out of the country.

He said that without any congressional actions, the SEC is cornered to following obsolete laws to justify whether a digital asset classifies as a security or not.

It’s true that without the government getting seriously involved in the cryptocurrency sphere and trying to understand the use cases it brings along, not much can be done by the federal authorities.

The involvement of Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Darren Soto (D-FL), who last year successfully introduced the Token Taxonomy Act that avoided binding cryptos to the definition of securities, stands as an example of the positive impact that the government’s direct involvement with cryptos can have.

Published at Thu, 23 May 2019 09:53:09 +0000