4 months after infamous Super Bowl ad, Coinbase lays off 1,100 staff

pcgamer.com:

Cryptocurrencies are having a shocking time right now. The price of Bitcoin (BTC(opens in new tab)), Ethereum (ETH(opens in new tab)), and others have all dropped to the lowest they've been in at least the last two years, and the general outlook is grim, too. There are real repercussions coming from this digital turbulence, and you need look no further than Coinbase(opens in new tab) for proof.

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.June 14, 2022

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong(opens in new tab) has taken to Twitter (via The Verge(opens in new tab)) to announce the company was going to «reduce the size of our team by about 18%, to ensure we stay healthy during the economic downturn.» That 18% equates to around 1,100 staff.

Armstrong goes on to say that this was partially down to expanding so quickly over the last two years and that it wasn't operating as efficiently due to the new size. That's a harsh reality for the affected staff, who apparently found out via email as the company «made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees.»

In a blog that he links to from his tweet(opens in new tab), Armstrong suggests that we are entering a recession and that another cryptocurrency winter was imminent. Having weathered crypto winters before, where trading revenues are down significantly, he sees these layoffs as the best way of preparing for what lies ahead. The layoffs come just a week or so after Coinbase made news for rescinding job offers it had made to numerous applicants, as the cryptocurrency market