Coinbase, the American cryptocurrency exchange, has laid off about 14% of its staff, or roughly 700 people, CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed in a post on X on Tuesday. The move comes as tech companies introduce AI into workflows, triggering a sea change in the workforce and the headcount required to keep companies running.
“Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%,” Armstrong said in an email to staff, which he posted on X.
“Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we’ve managed through that cyclicality many times before… we’re currently in a down market.”
This layoff follows similar headcount reductions at Amazon, Meta, and Block, as companies lean on AI to automate work and ship products faster. Vibe coding in particular has impacted software engineers, as companies lean on AI to write code faster.
“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 said.
This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase:
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) May 5, 2026
Team,
Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the…
Damilare Odedina
Despite this string of layoffs, no clear endpoint has been provided by leaders in the industry for what the future of work will look like as AI adoption in work processes becomes more common. However, some experts have touted a future in which humans do not work at all and automated AI systems meet the needs of the general public. But a counter perspective in AI research circles is that AI will make work faster and more efficiently with humans tweaking it to get desired outcomes.
“We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax,” Armstrong said. “The future is small, high-context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles.”
His statement echoes a growing frustration among tech leaders that finding talent with a sense of personal ownership, capable of working in an environment that entails consistent feedback, at times for really long hours, is next to impossible. Some founders in the US have singled out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as an attack on merit-based hiring that has eroded a culture of hard-work for smart work. Others have attributed it to a culture of mediocrity that describes bullish managers who give direct feedback as “bullies.”
“Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams,” Armstrong added in the email.
He added that the company will concentrate on “AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including ‘one-person teams’ with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.”
For many tech talent who sometimes work for startups, many of which merge with bigger companies or ultimately run out of runway, this is not their first rodeo with layoffs. The industry faced headcount reductions in 2020 during the pandemic, when business for many companies halted due to lockdown rules. But Armstrong said that the company will also see this through.
“We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission,” he said. “The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission.”
David Adubiina
