U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will cut its global workforce by about 18% to ensure it stays “healthy during this economic downturn,” CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post.
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Fast facts
- Coinbase will cut approximately 1,100 employees, or 18% of its staff, citing an economic slowdown, and aims to have approximately 5,000 total employees by the end of its current fiscal quarter on June 30, 2022, it said in a regulatory filing.
- Coinbase estimates it will take a restructuring charge of as much as US$45 million to cover the job cuts, mostly for employee severance and other termination benefits.
- The company expects to account for the charges in the second quarter of 2022.
- “It’s challenging to grow at just the right pace given the scale of our growth (~200% y/y since the beginning of 2021). While we tried our best to get this just right, in this case it is now clear to me that we over-hired,” Armstrong wrote in his blog post.
- Coinbase stock was trading around US$250 at the start of the year and has since fallen about 80%. It closed at US$51.58 on June 14.
- At the beginning of 2021, Coinbase had 1,250 employees and this was the early innings of the crypto bull run, Armstrong wrote.
- The cutbacks come after Coinbase reportedly raised a total of US$549 million in funding over 17 rounds, and acquired 22 organizations with the most recent acquisition of BtcTurk in April this year for US$3.2 billion.
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