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Posted on 05/07/2026 2:41:31 PM PDT by Libloather
Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong informed employees in an early morning message Tuesday that the cryptocurrency exchange would eliminate roughly 14% of its workforce — about 700 jobs — as the company restructures around artificial intelligence.
Armstrong shared the memo publicly on social media shortly before 7 a.m., telling staff the cuts were necessary as AI rapidly reshapes how work is done across the tech industry.
The billionaire co-founder said impacted employees would receive additional details within the hour, though some workers later said their access to company systems had already been limited by the time the email landed.
“I know this feels sudden and harsh,” Armstrong wrote, while describing the layoffs as a difficult but necessary move tied to the company’s responsibility to safeguard customer data.
He maintained that Coinbase remained financially strong and positioned for future growth, but said market pressures required the company to “rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native.”
According to the CEO, engineers using AI tools are now able to complete projects in days that previously took teams weeks to finish.
He added that nontechnical employees have started writing production-level code while automation increasingly handles routine workflows.
Coinbase employed 4,951 workers at the end of 2025, meaning the cuts are expected to affect roughly 700 employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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it is a shame when people get laid off, especially when it wasn’t anything they did wrong
The Tech Bros all over-hired. AI is an excuse to cut staff.
it is a shame when people get laid off, especially when it wasn’t anything they did wrong
and I gotta say (as an addicted user of computers including email) that sending a mass emailing firing people, sending it out before 7am is NOT a particularly nice or kindly way of doing business
but i guess it does provide the boss with a feeling of some safety
The funny thing is this guy said that they were going to demand more individual performance from their managers. In literally the next sentence he talks about removing layers of management so that every manager will have 15 direct reports.
15 direct reports is a LOT of people to manage (aside from a front line supervisor managing people in a contained business function.)
His whole presentation smelled of consultants trimming fat before a company is sold.
Add Upwork & what I assume is bill.com:
https://x.com/gurgavin/status/2052493883523682585
For Bay Area workers, Dinan was recruiting for bill.com.
“The Tech Bros all over-hired. AI is an excuse to cut staff.”
that’s what i think too ... 10%-15% annual layoffs in the tech industries have always been a standard way to cut deadwood ... Elon showed that 80% cuts of deadwood could be made without a hiccup when he bought twitter, and that was BEFORE the big AI fad ...
You can be sure a certain ethnic group will be spared from layoffs.
Wow! “nontechnical employees have started writing production-level code.” I’d say “That’s not going to work” but I have got a 5,000 line Python program I had Claude write for me to do in-depth analysis of my hikes. Since that project, I’ve had it write programs to support nutrition and glucose monitor data integration and analysis. The health dashboard I have in Claude is simply astonishing. I’m a technical guy, so I had a leg up, but I’m not a professional developer by any stretch.
There’s nothing like learning you’ve been sacked because your login credentials don’t work. No kind “I’m sorry, but...” personal discussion with the boss. No going to a conference room with your boss and discovering HR and the company lawyer are already sitting in the conference room.
Armstrong seems to have eliminated a lot of engineering managers, stating the expectation that the remaining EMs will also be hands-on developers. I don’t know how realistic it is to expect what will effectively be IC developers to also people-manage entire teams.
“I know this feels sudden and harsh,”
When will regulators be pounding on Coinbase’s door?
egg fires chicken for making too many eggs.
Which came first?
Best thing our power company (that I worked for) ever did was stripping layers so that an employee [who was also a customer] was only 2 steps from their VP.
I extended that to all our customers ... if they asked.
But I can assure you that VP did not have 15 managers, each with their own set of issues, reporting to him. That’s asking for trouble. In a call center (where I was an SVP) I took customer calls every day. (They got pretty much everything they wanted from me.) I was 3 levels from the folks on the phone.
I understand that in these types of businesses it’s the norm to work 80 hours a week. As they grow, they will learn that doesn’t lead to better practices. It leads to burn out and turn over. But, maybe I am just an old fogey.
It seems Coinbase is on the “efficiency” part of the cycle. When they start espousing “Customer Retention” you will know we are the upswing. There really isn’t anything new in the world. They just seem more manic about it these days!
Thins out the staff ...
“ Sounds like gibberish to me. Does AI speak English?”
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It can… although poorly lip synchronized judging by what I commonly see in YouTube videos.
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