Coinbase cuts 18% of workforce, warns ‘winter’ is coming for crypto

US-based crypto platform Coinbase is letting 18% of its staff go as it braces for another “crypto winter.”

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong / Photo credit: Coinbase

In a Medium post, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said that they “grew too quickly,” which led to inefficiencies with new hires, and that their “employee costs are too high to effectively manage this uncertain market.”

The firm has more than 4,900 employees according to its website, more than 4x its manpower of 1,250 people at the start of 2021.

1,100 laid off workers immediately lost access to Coinbase systems as they got a notice of separation through their personal email. They will get at least 14 weeks of severance pay, four months of insurance and mental health support, and access to Talent Hub for employment opportunities.

“We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto winter and could last for an extended period. In past crypto winters, trading revenue (our largest revenue source) has declined significantly,” said Armstrong.

Coinbase recently invested in Singapore-based digital asset exchange Zipmex. It also included Asia, where it has a large team, in its hiring spree earlier this year. This month, it said that it would be freezing its hiring efforts and rescinding accepted job offers.

See also:  Coinbase’s Asian expansion: wrong place, wrong time?

Track all the layoffs across Asia here and help us maintain this list by filling this form with any information on job cuts and affected employees.

Update (June 15, 2022, 12 p.m. SGT): The exact number of affected employees has been added.