Senior executives at the crypto exchange characterized the job cuts as a cyclical “talent density audit” as opposed to a cost-cutting measure.

A Wednesday morning report from independent reporter Colin Wu claimed that Binance plans to cut 20% of its 8,000 staff in June. Sources told Wu that the layoffs already had begun across several departments at the crypto exchange.

Binance’s chief communications officer Patrick Hillmann addressed the rumors in a series of tweets shortly after, saying the firm was not downsizing its workforce, but rather conducting a talent density audit – a routine exercise that takes place every six months.

Let me provide some additional clarity via 🧵.

Binance is not cutting 20% of employees as a cost-cutting measure. @binance experienced true exponential growth these past 5 years — and grew its staff accordingly. This was a historic operational challenge to overcome. https://t.co/Awmh8PdT8j

— Patrick Hillmann (@PRHillmann) May 31, 2023

“Like previous exercises, this will be done after several teams (including HR, Risk, and Operations) finalize that talent density audit. There is no specific number, just direction on where we need to streamline. This has frankly been part of Binance’s secret sauce,” Hillmann said.

 Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also commented on the reported layoffs, explaining that it was part of the firm’s “bottom out” program to streamline its workforce. Zhao said that the exchange constantly lets go of people who are not a strong fit with the company’s culture or situation, even if they are high performing employees.

“This ‘program’ is constant. I push for it on a weekly basis. There are no % of people we have to ‘push out’. I also push for cost cutting, servers, flights, meals, etc, every week too,” Zhao said.

“We always strive to increase talent density. We do performance management. And we are still hiring,” he said.

At the time of writing, there were 325 job openings listed on Binance’s website. In January, Zhao said that the exchange plans to increase its headcount by 15% to 30% in 2023.