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> Binance had a global staff of 8,000 A 12.5% reduction. Also, they are way larger than I thought with 8k employees. I don't know what's involved with running

> Binance had a global staff of 8,000 A 12.5% reduction. Also, they are way larger than I thought with 8k employees. I don't know what's involved with running an exchange but they must be into lots of things with that many folks.

bdcravens 3y ago
They have around 100M registered users, so approximately 1 employee for every 100k users seems reasonable.
- WestCoastJustin 3y ago
  Yes, totally. They probably have tons of support, sales, etc. I'd imagine they have tons of contractors too with that many users. Makes sense now.
- loeg 3y ago
  That figure seems implausibly high. 1 in 80 humans on Earth are not only participating in crypto but specifically have an account on Binance? It certainly cannot be the number of active users.
  - spaceman_2020 3y ago
    If its indeed true, the gap between onchain and offchain users is even more immense. On chain, there are not more than 100k users across chains daily. Real users across all EVM chains is probably around 20k/day. Major airdrops like Optimism and Arbitrum went out to like 600k wallets (and most have multiple wallets). OpenSea has like a few thousand daily active users. Which makes you wonder - all these billions in funding for serving just…100k real users? Because if its not onchain, it might as well be a database.
  - schmichael 3y ago
    It has been reported that CZ had 300 accounts himself, so like most things in crypto the 100M number is to be taken with a grain of salt.
  - deleted 3y ago
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javajosh 3y ago
In some corporate cultures, headcount is its own reward.
alfalfasprout 3y ago
To be fair, exchanges are pretty complicated. That said, it seems like a pretty high number.
tempsy 3y ago
you need a lot of operations people like customer service for an exchange. not really surprising.
_yb2s 3y ago
I don't know if I'm just naive, but I'm always confused when I see such a high headcount for companies with such simple tech, the staff of Twitter (even after mass layoffs) confuses me also. I feel like these companies are solving a relatively simple problem, and a single skilled engineer working full time could probably make and maintain a decent scalable solution.
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- deleted 3y ago
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- sonicshadow 3y ago
  True sign of the arrogant software engineer, believing they can single-handedly recreate an entire company just because they went to school in one subject for 4 years.
  - rognjen 3y ago
    Such vitriol! It's safer to assume they're inexperienced than arrogant.
    - sonicshadow 3y ago
      Pretty much the definition of arrogance, being inexperienced and still thinking they can do the work of a hundred people
  - deleted 3y ago
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  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
    I work at one such company and I still think most of us aren't needed. I swear it's 90% red tape and BS holding everyone back. I know I can build things 30x faster outside of work, but I will also confess that it might not meet at the accessibility guidelines and i18n and be user tested and so forth.
WinstonSmith84 3y ago
There are dozens of protocols they need to integrate with and keep up to date. Plus, those protocols change constantly. And there are also new ones, and those which disappear... And then, there is their whole infrastructure. The support must be massive too. And the legal aspect must also keep people busy from having to enforce various regulations to having to answer to various governments... So let's take a comparison: - facebook: 50k employee. What has changed on Facebook for the last few years? So yes, there is probably some support, the content enforcement of course must keep a lot of people busy, but then?.. - snapchat: 5k employee. Well, for a social media platform which is not changing at all and actually losing in revenue, that's a big number
- atraac 3y ago
  > facebook: 50k employee. What has changed on Facebook for the last few years? What do you mean? Facebook changes literally every day. Every single day a piece of UI randomly stops working.
- mvdtnz 3y ago
  You're assuming (in both the Binance and Facebook cases) that the majority of headcount comes from product development teams. Not true. The majority of that 8k/50k figure comes from areas like sales, compliance, finance, HR and management.
ecshafer 3y ago
NYSE has around 2000 employees. So I think this is more than they need.
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- 1-more 3y ago
  OTOH NYSE operates in NY and US jurisdictions right? Binance tries to operate everywhere.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
    > Binance tries to operate everywhere. Under which legal jurisdiction does Binance operate? It's not "all of them". I'm not sure that it's "any of them".
    - 1-more 3y ago
      Fair cop, haha. It has designs on operating aboveboard I think everywhere on earth right?
      - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
        And I have designs on flying to the moon by flapping my arms.

bdcravens 3y ago

They have around 100M registered users, so approximately 1 employee for every 100k users seems reasonable.

WestCoastJustin 3y ago
Yes, totally. They probably have tons of support, sales, etc. I'd imagine they have tons of contractors too with that many users. Makes sense now.
loeg 3y ago
That figure seems implausibly high. 1 in 80 humans on Earth are not only participating in crypto but specifically have an account on Binance? It certainly cannot be the number of active users.
- spaceman_2020 3y ago
  If its indeed true, the gap between onchain and offchain users is even more immense. On chain, there are not more than 100k users across chains daily. Real users across all EVM chains is probably around 20k/day. Major airdrops like Optimism and Arbitrum went out to like 600k wallets (and most have multiple wallets). OpenSea has like a few thousand daily active users. Which makes you wonder - all these billions in funding for serving just…100k real users? Because if its not onchain, it might as well be a database.
- schmichael 3y ago
  It has been reported that CZ had 300 accounts himself, so like most things in crypto the 100M number is to be taken with a grain of salt.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

javajosh 3y ago

In some corporate cultures, headcount is its own reward.

alfalfasprout 3y ago

To be fair, exchanges are pretty complicated. That said, it seems like a pretty high number.

tempsy 3y ago

you need a lot of operations people like customer service for an exchange. not really surprising.

_yb2s 3y ago

I don't know if I'm just naive, but I'm always confused when I see such a high headcount for companies with such simple tech, the staff of Twitter (even after mass layoffs) confuses me also. I feel like these companies are solving a relatively simple problem, and a single skilled engineer working full time could probably make and maintain a decent scalable solution.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
sonicshadow 3y ago
True sign of the arrogant software engineer, believing they can single-handedly recreate an entire company just because they went to school in one subject for 4 years.
- rognjen 3y ago
  Such vitriol! It's safer to assume they're inexperienced than arrogant.
  - sonicshadow 3y ago
    Pretty much the definition of arrogance, being inexperienced and still thinking they can do the work of a hundred people
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
  I work at one such company and I still think most of us aren't needed. I swear it's 90% red tape and BS holding everyone back. I know I can build things 30x faster outside of work, but I will also confess that it might not meet at the accessibility guidelines and i18n and be user tested and so forth.

WinstonSmith84 3y ago

There are dozens of protocols they need to integrate with and keep up to date. Plus, those protocols change constantly. And there are also new ones, and those which disappear... And then, there is their whole infrastructure. The support must be massive too. And the legal aspect must also keep people busy from having to enforce various regulations to having to answer to various governments... So let's take a comparison: - facebook: 50k employee. What has changed on Facebook for the last few years? So yes, there is probably some support, the content enforcement of course must keep a lot of people busy, but then?.. - snapchat: 5k employee. Well, for a social media platform which is not changing at all and actually losing in revenue, that's a big number

atraac 3y ago
> facebook: 50k employee. What has changed on Facebook for the last few years? What do you mean? Facebook changes literally every day. Every single day a piece of UI randomly stops working.
mvdtnz 3y ago
You're assuming (in both the Binance and Facebook cases) that the majority of headcount comes from product development teams. Not true. The majority of that 8k/50k figure comes from areas like sales, compliance, finance, HR and management.

ecshafer 3y ago

NYSE has around 2000 employees. So I think this is more than they need.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
1-more 3y ago
OTOH NYSE operates in NY and US jurisdictions right? Binance tries to operate everywhere.
- SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
  > Binance tries to operate everywhere. Under which legal jurisdiction does Binance operate? It's not "all of them". I'm not sure that it's "any of them".
  - 1-more 3y ago
    Fair cop, haha. It has designs on operating aboveboard I think everywhere on earth right?
    - SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
      And I have designs on flying to the moon by flapping my arms.