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Crypto exchange Coinbase plans to cut 14 per cent of its workforce, citing the impact of AI and the digital asset downturn.
Chief executive Brian Armstrong said on Tuesday that AI was speeding up processes, meaning fewer employees would be required to run the business. “Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks,” he added in a post on X.
US-listed Coinbase employs 4,951 full-time staff, according to a disclosure in February, meaning the planned cuts would result in the loss of about 700 roles.
The group is one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges but has struggled over the past year as digital asset prices have sunk amid a prolonged crypto downturn.
It is the latest business to slash jobs because of AI, following Meta, Crypto.com and Snap, which are among those that have blamed the technology for cutting roles this year.
Coinbase makes most of its money from crypto trading fees, and Armstrong said the business was “still volatile from quarter to quarter”. “We’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster and more efficient,” he added.
Coinbase’s shares rose 4 per cent in pre-market trading on Tuesday but have fallen 14 per cent since the start of the year. The crypto market has struggled to recover from a flash crash in October, leaving company and token prices floundering despite a swath of crypto-friendly moves by the US government.
The price of bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has fallen 8 per cent since January, while ethereum and solana have plunged 20 and 32 per cent, respectively.
Coinbase co-founder Armstrong is also making structural changes, including flattening the organisation and creating “AI-native” teams, which he said would use AI agents to be more productive. “The pace of what’s possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it’s accelerating every day,” Armstrong said.
Coinbase has grown from a purely crypto trading venue to an “everything exchange”, as it competes with other digital asset venues as well as the likes of Robinhood.
As well as cryptocurrencies, Coinbase users can buy and sell tokenised versions of traditional stocks, and can trade on less regulated, more decentralised finance markets. The group, which has a market valuation of about $55bn, has also launched a prediction market in an attempt to compete with Polymarket and Kalshi in the fast-growing sector.
Coinbase is increasingly powerful in Washington, where it has sought to influence the shape of digital asset policies under a crypto-friendly US government. It donated $300mn towards President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom and, in a show of how powerful it has become, a Senate discussion about important crypto legislation was delayed last year after Armstrong publicly pulled his support for it.
Coinbase appointed former UK chancellor George Osborne as chair of its global advisory council in December.
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