Meta laid off 11,000 people; the value withdrawn from FTX exceeded $6 billion; Binance refuses to buy FTX!
Meta laid off 11,000 people
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced that it would shrink its workforce by 13% in its history’s first mass layoffs.
In a letter to his employees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that hiring is frozen and announced that this policy will remain in force until the first quarter of the next fiscal year.
According to the announcement shared via Meta’s press room, a total of 11,000 people were fired. The first rumors circulated when the Wall Street Journal reported on the possible layoffs on November 6 referencing unnamed sources at the company.
While Zuckerberg announced that he took full responsibility for the layoffs, he cited the recent increase in expenses and the crash in the price of company shares as the reason for this decision.
Meta released its third quarter report on October 26. According to the report, the company’s metaverse R&D department lost $3.67 billion in the third quarter.
The company recorded only $285 million in total revenue for the same quarter. While this situation made the shareholders nervous, it also made some people question Meta’s plans for the metaverse.
The asset value withdrawn from FTX exceeded $6 billion
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has taken another blow that will likely further deepen the current liquidity crisis. The asset value withdrawn from the stock market in just a few days reached billions of dollars.
Bahamas-based FTX garnered attention when rival exchange Binance announced that it would liquidate its FTX Token (FTT) holdings. “We have learned lessons from LUNA,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said, referring to the leaked balance sheet of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research on why this decision was made.
The similarity with the stablecoin ecosystem LUNA, which collapsed earlier this year, has alarmed market participants. Seeing the message sent by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Reuters quoted the amount withdrawn from the exchange since on-chain monitoring resource Whale Alert reported that almost 23 million FTT had been deposited on Binance. SBF stated that a $6 billion net withdrawal was made from the stock market in the 72 hours that passed since the notification.
Binance abandoned buying FTX
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) stated that he gave up buying the exchange less than 48 hours after he announced his intention to save FTX, which was experiencing a major crisis.
Zhao referred to “problems with misused client funds and investigations by alleged US government agencies.” On top of that, CZ has confirmed that they will not continue the potential acquisition.
The report, published by Bloomberg on November 9, revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are investigating whether FTX US and Alameda Research, as well as FTX exchange, misappropriated their funds.
Two hours after the Binance exchange announced that it was abandoning the buyout agreement, FTX’s website went offline. Even before FTX’s website was shut down, a statement was made to investors that they could not withdraw money and was strongly advised against depositing money.