Coinbase is cutting about 14% of its workforce, turning a weaker crypto market and faster AI tools into its restructuring plan.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is laying off about 14% of its workforce as chief executive Brian Armstrong says the company needs to cut costs and rebuild around AI.
In an X post on Tuesday, May 5, Arsmtrong dislosed that he had sent employees an email announcing a roughly 14% workforce reduction. Based on Coinbase’s latest disclosed full-time employee count of 4,951 at the end of 2025, implying roughly 690 jobs would be cut.
Despite the cut, Armstrong said the company is still “well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm.” However, he admitted that the business remains “volatile from quarter to quarter.” Armstrong wrote:
“While we’ve managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, 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.”
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AI Becomes the Cost Story
Armstrong said AI has changed the math inside the company, writing that engineers can now “ship in days what used to take a team weeks.” He also said non-technical teams are already shipping production code and that many workflows are being automated.
Armstrong also described smaller “AI-native pods,” including experiments with “one person teams” where engineering, design and product work are folded into a single role. What he didn’t say though is whether Coinbase plans to pay those employees differently for taking on several jobs at once.
Armstrong said affected U.S. employees will receive at least 16 weeks of base pay, plus two extra weeks per year worked, their next equity vest and six months of COBRA.
- Coinbase said in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that in Q4 2025 its total revenue was $1.8 billion, down 5% from the previous quarter. Transaction revenue also fell 6% to $983 million.
- The company posted a $667 million net loss, driven mainly by a $718 million largely unrealized loss on its crypto investment portfolio and a $395 million loss on investments.
Read more: Coinbase Launches Agentic.market Marketplace for AI Agents
