Former Brazilian Economy Minister Joins Binance’s Advisory Board (Report)

Despite the ongoing bear market, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – Binance – continues to expand its team. Henrique Meirelles, who served as Brazilian Central Bank President and Economy Minister of the country, reportedly joined the platform as an adviser.

Contrary to Binance, which went on a hiring spree during the crypto winter, many of its rivals dismissed a chunk of their staff in the past few months. Such examples are CryptoCom, Coinbase, Bybit, Gemini, and others.

Binance Does not Push the Brakes

The recent decline of the cryptocurrency market and the consecutive investor outflow have not been much of a concern for Binance. In June, CEO Changpeng Zhao assured that the exchange has a “healthy war chest” and crypto winters are actually the right time for firms to hire people.

According to the newspaper O Globo, Binance added another member to its Advisory Board – Henrique Meirelles. Over the course of his career, the economist served as the President of Brazil’s central bank. He was also an Economy Minister, while in 2018, he ran for President of the South American nation.

“Binance confirms the participation of Henrique Meirelles in the company’s new global Advisory Board and reports that it will release more details about this initiative soon,” the coverage reads.

The company’s presence in the Latin American region seems to be getting stronger recently. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico are countries where the galloping inflation has caused panic among residents, and interestingly some of those have turned their attention toward digital assets.

Last month, Maximiliano Hinz – top executive of Binance Latin America – said the economic turbulence in the region is one of the main reasons why the exchange has amassed more clients in recent months:

“Now that we are seeing inflation ramping up worldwide, we are seeing that more and more people are seeking cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, as a way to protect themselves from inflation.”

The Rivals are on a Dismissal Spree

Unlike Binance, many leading cryptocurrency platforms decided to lay off some of their workforce to cut costs during the challenging times.

For one, Coinbase reduced the size of its team by 18%. The negative trend in the industry has also affected the company’s shares which are down by nearly 60% compared to half a year ago.

The crypto exchange spearheaded by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – Gemini – dismissed 10% of its staff, while CryptoCom, Bybit, and Huobi also made some redundancies.