Coinbase Employment Debacle Runs Deeper Than We Think

• Former Wall Street employees formed a large chunk of persons affected by Coinbase’s decision to rescind employment contracts. 
• The affected were previously working with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo among others.
• The crypto exchange has since set up a directory to help the jilted individuals to find new roles in other Web 3 firms.

Coinbase’s decision to rescind employment offers at the start of the month appears to have hit former Wall Street workers the most. The exchange is frantically trying to find new roles for the affected individuals through a talent hub.

From Wall Street to the cold streets

The full extent of Coinbase’s employment fiasco has been revealed to be far-reaching with former Wall Street staff bearing the full brunt of the move. Coinbase’s Talent Hub, a platform created for the people affected by the employment fiasco, shed a light on the affected demographic.

Individuals in Business Operations, Customer Experience, Data Science, Design, Legal, Product Management, Sales, and Trading from the big Wall Street firms were affected. A pool of staff from investment banking giants JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo formed part of the over 300 profiles listed on the Talent Hub.

Aside from Wall Street, ex-employees of Tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter were among those that tendered resignations in the hopes of starting new roles with Coinbase. A deeper look at the Talent Hub reveals that Web 3 was also affected by Coinbase’s decision to halt the hiring process with some people from Robinhood and Gemini affected.

Coinbase’s decision to create a database of affected individuals received mixed reactions from the ecosystem. On one hand, it was hailed as a thoughtful gesture to the affected while others saw it as mere “optics”.

“Letting people go is one thing but not honoring job offers for people who have probably resigned from their previous roles is a terrible look,” said one Twitter user. “This website is a nice gesture but a gesture you should never have to make if you’re a company with competent leadership.”

The “rug pool” that caused the thunderstorm’

On June 2, Coinbase was thrown into the spotlight after L.J Brock, the firm’s Chief People Officer revealed that the exchange will be extending the hiring pause for roles and rescinding a number of accepted offers.

According to a blog post written by Brock, the move was in “response to the current market conditions and ongoing business prioritization efforts.” The crypto markets suffered from blights of dwindling values while macroeconomic factors also played a part in the firm’s decision.

Gemini, another leading cryptocurrency exchange has stated that it will be reducing its staff headcount by 10% in the coming weeks to cope with the macroeconomic conditions. Despite the mass reduction in staff strength in the space, Immutable, Kraken, and FTX have previously unveiled plans to increase their workforce to keep up with their expansion plans.