Coinbase continues with layoffs – The Cryptonomist

Coinbase is continuing with its company cutbacks, announcing the layoff of another 950 people from its team. 

This was publicly announced by the CEO and co-founder of the crypto platform, Brian Armstrong. 

Coinbase lays off 950 people from its team

In a blog post, Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder of Coinbase announced that he will follow with the second wave of layoffs, this time of as many as 950 people from his team, to reduce operating expenses by 25% Here are the verbatim words:

“Therefore, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our operating expense(1) by about 25% Q/Q, which includes letting go of about 950 people(2). All impacted team members will be informed by today.”

Apparently, Coinbase would have done the math with its annual planning to decide to venture into 2023 with fewer employees, but without decreasing the number of projects it follows. This means that projects will run as normal but with fewer people on the team. 

This decision might seem like a sort of “crisis effect” for the crypto platform, also due to the long “crypto winter,” but in reality, Armstrong defines it as preparing to absorb the events that have already occurred. 

Such as the collapse of FTX, defined by Armstrong as the failure of a major competitor. 

Thus to “lose out” again will be the employees who will have already received layoff notices yesterday. 

Coinbase and transition support for laid-off employees

Armstrong also specified that for laid-off employees there will be a transitional support package.

For those living in the US, Coinbase will provide a minimum of 14 weeks of base pay (2 additional weeks for each year worked), health insurance, and other benefits. 

Also in the works is the same support formula for laid-off employees who have succeeded in obtaining a work visa. In contrast, for those who do not reside in the US, the support package will be in line with their country’s labor laws. 

At the same time, Coinbase again invited its future former employees to access the Talent Hub platform to support them in finding their next career opportunity.

2022: amid ‘crypto winter’ and layoffs

It has only been six months since Armstrong, through a roundup of tweets, first communicated the decision to reduce the workforce by 18%.

And indeed, last June 2022, Coinbase’s CEO justified his drastic decision by referring to the downward trend in the cryptocurrency market, which he was no longer able to support. 

A need related to declining revenue, however, which during the past year has also moved other companies in the industry to proceed with layoffs. BlockFi and Crypto.com reduced their workforce by 20% and 5%, respectively. Even the Gemini crypto-exchange had reportedly left 10% of its employees at home.