Coinbase lays off over 1,000 employees, CEO expects long crypto winter

[Tudor Cibean]

What just happened? Coinbase's CEO has just announced that it's letting go of about 1,100 employees, arguing the company has grown too quickly in the past two years. He also claimed current economic conditions might result in an extended crypto winter, a period when cryptocurrency prices contract and remain low.

Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong has just announced that the company is laying off 18 percent of its staff, equating to about 1,100 employees. This news comes just two weeks after the company extended its hiring freeze and rescinded job offers for an unknown number of new hires. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume.

Armstrong suggests that we might be entering a recession, potentially leading to another crypto winter that could last for an extended period. Such a scenario would hit the company's bottom line hard, as most of its revenue comes from trading fees.

1/ Today I shared that I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team at Coinbase by about 18%. The broader market downturn means that we need to be more mindful of costs as we head into a potential recession.

— Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) June 14, 2022

The CEO also blamed the rapid rate at which the company has been expanding over the past two years. He claimed Coinbase only had 1,250 employees at the beginning of last year, and that number quadrupled over the past 18 months as the crypto space saw a massive surge in popularity.

Affected employees report that Coinbase cut their access to company systems just before being notified on their personal emails that they were out of a job. Armstrong claimed this was "to ensure not even a single person made a rash decision that harmed the business or themselves."

Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius also announced a few days ago that it was freezing withdrawals. Meanwhile, El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings have lost half their value due to the recent crypto crash.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94955-coinbase-lays-off-over-1000-employees-ceo-expects.html

 

[RudyBob]

Bummer Man

 

[Mithan]

My guess is he is looking for another job. Crypto will be dead by next year.

 

[PEnnn]

Crypto is dying. That's so sad.....let me get my fiddle.

 

[Nobina]

May it only go back up if ever I buy some.

 

[eTheBlack]

Why did they have 1100+ employees?

 

[brucek]

If the 1100 employees was 18%, it sounds like they had 5,500 and now still have 4,400. Makes me curious what they all do too.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

If the 1100 employees was 18%, it sounds like they had 5,500 and now still have 4,400. Makes me curious what they all do too.

I know, I'm nitpicking....That would be 20% if they went from 5,500 to 4,400.

If 18% = 1100
Then that means they had roughly 6,100 employees before the massive layoffs. Now they're down to around 5,000 employees.

 

[Slappy McPhee]

I am still trying to figure out how CB has so many employees in the first place?

 

[kiwigraeme]

Why did they have 1100+ employees?

Some one has to run the spam farms , posting 1000s of happy antidotes - reassuring posts - they think is all the people who buy it -like those on here know they must rave about it - to encourage the greater fools ( whatever their internal doubts - ie deep down they know they will have to get off - before it's ultimate demise ) .

Probably also - need to assist new investors in many countries - as I think in NZ you need to show proof of ID etc to buy BC here - otherwise think about it buy stolen credit cards - buy BCs - transfer to even more shifty coins - cash out

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

Believe it or not crypto is being manipulated but some still refuse to believe it. When the platform says they're freezing all accounts doesn't that sound familiar? And since crypto is not insured, the platform can say anything such as "To Protect the Community" and freeze the accounts indefinitely until one day it goes offline, Ooops...

 

[Lounds]

What about the folk stupid enough to buy coinbase shares as they went public last year.

 

[Bamda]

The crypto winter we all knew was coming and yet it's summer where I live!?!

 

[poltevo]

It was only a matter of time before Crypto had another crash. There is so much risk in some of these popular products. Stable coins in particular have little oversight.

All that said, I don’t think the bigger coins will die. Winter, yes, but not death.

 

[JKnight]

I am still trying to figure out how CB has so many employees in the first place?

Marketing