Coinbase cuts 14% workforce, to experiment with 'one-person teams' in AI-driven restructuring

Cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase will cut about 14% of its workforce as it restructures operations to become “lean, fast, and AI-native”, Chief Executive Brian Armstrong told employees in an internal email on Tuesday.

Armstrong said the company was taking the step amid a downturn in crypto markets and rapid advances in artificial intelligence that were reshaping how companies operate.

“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 for our next phase of growth,” Armstrong wrote in the email he also shared on social media platform X.

He said that AI tools had significantly increased productivity across teams, with engineers now able to complete in days tasks that previously took weeks.

“AI is changing how we work,” Armstrong said, adding that non-technical teams were also increasingly shipping production code and automating workflows.

The layoffs are part of an operational overhaul at Coinbase, which includes flattening its organisational structure to a maximum of five layers below the CEO and COO, reducing management layers, and emphasising “AI-native” teams.

The company said managers would also need to function as active individual contributors rather than pure supervisors.

Armstrong said Coinbase would experiment with smaller teams, including “one person teams” where engineers, designers and product managers could be combined into a single role.

Coinbase said employees affected by the layoffs would receive severance packages. US-based employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of base pay, additional compensation linked to tenure, accelerated equity vesting and six months of healthcare coverage under COBRA.

The company also said employees on work visas would receive additional transition support, while workers outside the US would receive support in line with local regulations.

Coinbase, founded in 2012, is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and went public in 2021.

The layoffs at Coinbase come at a time when several tech companies are taking similar measures citing restructuring due to artificial intelligence.

In February, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced that his financial technology company Block will cut nearly half of its workforce.

In a note to employees posted on social media platform X, Dorsey said over 4,000 employees would either be laid off or enter consultation, calling it “one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company.”

Dorsey stressed that the layoffs were not a result of financial distress.

“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving,” he said.

He pointed to rapid advances in “intelligence tools” the company is building and deploying internally, saying smaller, flatter teams paired with AI systems are “enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.”

Last month, Meta Platforms announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 jobs, and also shut down another 6,000 open roles as it continues to invest heavily in AI.