Vijay Ayyar, an executive of the crypto exchange Luno, is leaving after seven years in service. With the departure, Luno is losing yet another one of its leading lights, after a wave of mass layoffs in January. With his departure, Luno also faces the challenge of being down two executives in the form of Ayyar and Timothy Stranex, who left the firm in December.

Tracing back a few months, the context of this departure is the ongoing financial crisis of Digital Currency Group, Luno’s parent company, which disclosed a reported loss of $1.1 billion in the 2022 financial year. As well as the loan of $630 million the company owes to its lending platform Genesis, supposedly for repayment this month.

This unwelcome news adds to the struggles the exchange experienced due to the222 crypto market turbulence. This difficult landscape meant layoffs for 336 employees, accounting for 35% of Luno’s workforce in multiple jurisdictions. Furthermore, the withdrawal of its Singapore operations led to the exit of Ayyar, who was still based there.

Although his exit was not explicitly related to the Singapore move according to a CNBC report, Ayyar’s departure marks the latest in a series of losses Luno has suffered due to the dramatic changes the industry has gone through lately. This is particularly true now that Marcus Swanepoel, the former CEO of Luno, has also left the firm, after voicing the hardships they were all suffering `“2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market" - he stated to CNBC in January.

However, it still remains unknown where Ayyar will work next, as a Luno spokesperson only stated he was leaving pursue a new opportunity in the industry. With his experiences in the world of venture capital, Google and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the former VP of Corporate Development and International will no doubt find a new treetop from which to survey the tumultuous cryptocurrency market from.



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