The bloat was especially acute for Coinbase’s customer service team. His members of new staff often felt that there was not enough to do. Laid-off customer service employee David Visini said: “Dead, dead, dead.”
Chief Operating Officer Choi acknowledged that Coinbase had “overhired” during the pandemic and said it was difficult to integrate new hires in a remote environment.
“I’m not sure I had the exact toolset to set me up for success,” she said.
In May, the cryptocurrency market crashed, causing Coinbase’s stock to drop nearly 60%. In the first quarter, Coinbase’s revenue fell 27% from the same period last year to $1.17 billion, but expenses more than doubled to $1.72 billion. .
Its competitors seem to be doing well. FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried said in an email that the company is performing similarly to last year, when it posted a profit of about $350 million. Binance, the world’s largest exchange, declined to disclose revenue figures, but he said in June that the company’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, said: announced That he was hiring 2,000 open positions.
That month, Coinbase employees circulated a petition demanding the dismissal of several executives.Mr. Armstrong reacted positively twitterAsk disgruntled employees to leave. But at a staff meeting, he and other executives were more reconciled, saying employees should continue to trust cryptocurrencies and the company would come out stronger from the turmoil, according to two people present. I took a memo.
A few days later, the company laid off 1,100 employees.
