Mass Layoff, Coinbase Lays Off Employees Due To Economic Recession

Coinbase lays off employees. (photo: trade market)

JAKARTA – The US crypto exchange giant, Coinbase, has reportedly cut its employees in recent days. About 18 percent of Coinbase employees had to leave the company.

The announcement was made by Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, on Tuesday, June 14 yesterday. Armstrong said the company was forced to make a “difficult decision” to reduce the number of Coinbase's current team as a result of the onset of the economic recession.

“We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto winter, and it could last for a long time,” Armstrong said.

Furthermore, the Coinbase boss explained that the company's revenue has decreased significantly during this bear market. On the other hand, Coinbase itself has managed to go through four phases of the crypto market downturn in the past few years since the company was founded in 2012.

On the other hand, Armstrong admits Coinbase has had “too fast” growth with additional employee numbers to reach 1,250 by early 2021. According to Coinbase bosses, the team has grown four times in the last 18 months and their employee costs are “too high to manage a market that doesn’t exist.” surely this is effective.”

Even though 18 percent of the total Coinbase employees were terminated. The company emphasized that they will receive severance pay from Coinbase. Then the company will also provide health insurance for four months.

According to Cointelegraph, Coinbase's announcement of massive layoffs comes shortly after Armstrong criticized his employees in a Twitter post for issuing a public petition to remove several senior Coinbase executives in a vote of no confidence. The petition specifically calls for the sacking of chief operating officer Emilie Choi, chief product officer Surojit Chatterjee, and chief people officer LJ Brock.

Coinbase officials themselves are accused of making decisions that are “not in the best interests of the company, its employees, and its shareholders.” The petitioners judged the decision to lead to the failure of the Coinbase NFT platform, the work environment and apathy exhibited by senior management and others.

With staff cuts during a bear market, Coinbase joins a number of other crypto exchanges such as Gemini and Crypto.com that are taking similar actions.