Just four months ago, Coinbase reportedly spent $ 14 million on a Super Bowl ad that consisted almost entirely of a colorful QR code bouncing off the screen, pointing viewers to a website where they could get $ 15. in Bitcoin only by registering. Now, his fortune has changed so abruptly that he will lay off about 1,100 employees, or 18 percent of his workforce, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a post on the company’s blog, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong first blamed the changing economic conditions that could lead to a “cryptographic winter” and waited until his third point to mention that the company has “over-contracted,” citing his attempt to take advantage of “new crypto-enabled use cases to get traction virtually every week.”
2 / We have also grown quite rapidly over the last two years and have started to operate less efficiently at our new size. It will take us a while to adjust to this new scale before we can grow again.
– Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) June 14, 2022
16 / If something is not satisfied, work as part of the team to come up with the proposed solutions (it is easy to be critical, more difficult to be part of the solution). If you are unable to do so and you are filtering / debugging externally, exit. Thanks!
– Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) June 10, 2022
Four days ago, Armstrong responded on Twitter to a request from employees calling for the removal of Coinbase executives, calling it “really stupid on several levels” and encouraging employees dissatisfied with the situation or proposed solutions to resign.
The employee’s request cited issues that do not seem as stupid as Armstrong said, calling on the company to “aggressively hire for thousands of jobs, even though it is an unsustainable plan and contrary to the wisdom of the cryptographic industry.” Not to mention the promotion of the Super Bowl, but the excessive prioritization of certain projects, starting with the Coinbase NFT platform which was launched with what appears to be an exceptionally bad time given a drop in market activity. general and has failed to attract the attention of people who market digital tokens.
In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s executives, including Armstrong, its co-founder Fred Ehrsam, President and COO Emilie Choi, and CPO Surojit Chatterjee, had raised $ 1.2 billion in stock sales since Coinbase went public in April 2021. The company’s stock opened at $ 382 and is currently trading at about $ 52.
This staff reduction comes after Coinbase began terminating job offers
This staff reduction comes after Coinbase began terminating job offers that had already been accepted by candidates. The sudden change even left some visa holders in limbo, as well as others who had overlooked other opportunities or were willing to leave their previous jobs. In a report yesterday, Motherboard counted more than 300 people whose bids were canceled.
Other cryptocurrency companies such as BlockFi, Crypto.com and Gemini have also announced layoffs recently after the price of Bitcoin fell in each of the last 12 weeks and now stands at around $ 21,884 after reaching a high of about $ 69,000 last November.
In the blog post, Armstrong says, “In the next hour, every employee will receive an HR email informing you whether or not this dismissal is affecting you.” Those fired will receive at least 14 weeks of compensation plus an additional two weeks for each year of employment after the first, plus four months of COBRA health insurance in the U.S. and four months of worldwide mental health support, as well as access to their talent center which is supposed to try to help them find new jobs.