Coinbase’s billionaire CEO lays off around 18 percent of the company’s personnel to cut expenses ahead of a possible recession on Tuesday, joining other tech companies in reducing employment numbers as equities and cryptocurrencies drop deeper into bear market territory.
Coinbase let off around 1,100 employees, according to a regulatory filing issued Tuesday. Employees in the United States who are affected by the layoffs will be required to follow appropriate local norms for non-U.S. workers, according to the company. After the layoffs, Coinbase plans to have roughly 5,000 employees by the end of the month.
According to the corporation, departing employees will get at least 14 weeks of severance pay, four months of health insurance, and job-search assistance.
After a landmark year for cryptocurrencies, Coinbase went public in April of last year, but the Federal Reserve’s attempts to battle sky-high inflation—at the risk of impeding economic growth—have depressed asset prices, notably in the cryptocurrency business. After crypto lending business Celsius initially stoked anxiety by stopping withdrawals owing to “extreme market conditions,” bitcoin’s price plummeted about 20% to an overnight low of less than $21,000 on Monday. Binance was forced to suspend its exchange owing to a backlog issue during the selloff, while crypto startup BlockFi subsequently stated it was laying off 20% of its workers due to the difficult market conditions.
From an all-time high of almost $3 trillion in November and $2 trillion at the start of the quarter, the total value of the world’s cryptocurrencies has dropped by roughly 70% to $929 billion. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted in technology, has lost approximately 32% this year.
