Coinbase Global Inc. announced Tuesday that it would lay off 18% of employees in an additional sign of a worsening cryptocurrency downturn that has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars of total crypto market value.
The Company expects to close the current quarter with approximately 5,000 employees
The U.S.’s biggest crypto exchange is following in the footsteps of other cryptocurrency-related businesses that have recently cut staff, including rival exchange Gemini Trust Co. and lender BlockFi Inc., both of which cited the arrival of a crypto winter — a prolonged downturn — as the reason for the layoffs.
Coinbase had employed aggressively over the past few years, and its workforce grew by approximately 1,200 this year.
The company intends to lay off approximately that number, with around 5,000 employees at the end of this quarter.
The company has been silent about the arrival of crypto winter since its public listing more than a year ago. According to Bloomberg data, they are down almost 80% since then.
Employees who are laid off will be paid a minimum of 3 months of severance and two weeks for each year of employment.
After Bitcoin reached its all-time high in November, the cryptocurrency market began to decline. The collapse of TerraUSD stablecoin (and the related Luna token) earlier this year erased billions in market gains.
The collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and its related Luna token caused coin prices to plummet. This was in part due to the fact that Celsius Network, a crypto lender, stopped withdrawals. Many suspect this was a bank-run-like incident.
