May 5 (UPI) — Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, announced the company is downsizing about 14% of its workforce.
Armstrong posted a memo to employees on X saying he had made “the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase” by approximately 14%, explaining it is the result of “two forces” that “are converging at the same time.”
The first of the “forces” at play is the current downturn in the crypto market, leading to a “need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster and more efficient for our next phase of growth.”
The second reason cited by Armstrong is the rise of AI “changing how we work.”
“All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core,” Armstrong wrote.
Coinbase is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings on Saturday, with shares up nearly 4% in premarket trading.
The announcement follows other companies including Block, Pinterest, CrowdStrike and Chegg making the decision to cut jobs as a result of AI integration.
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