Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that it will lay off 18 percent of its workforce as a result of a possible recession and upcoming “crypto winter.” This means that around 1,100 of Coinbase’s full-time employees will have to search for a new job.
According to reports, laid-off employees were first taken off Coinbase systems before being notified about the change in their status through personal emails. The company’s CEO Brian Armstrong later detailed the decision on social media, saying that the company “grew quite quickly over the past two years and have begun to operate less efficiently at our new size.”
“It will take us some time to adjust to this new scale before growing again,” Armstrong added.
The decision to lower the number of employees comes after Coinbase recently paused new hiring in the wake of a recent crypto market meltdown. The exchange previously aggressively recruited new employees and lured them from top tech companies with a significant pay rise. However, most were recently notified that their contracts are being canceled.
Coinbase recently also had to deal with an anonymous petition that circled among its employees. The petition called for changes in management due to missteps in recent months.
