Coinbase is laying off 1,100 employees as Bitcoin prices continue to fall

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Four months ago, the company spent 14 million dollars on a Super Bowl ad that had a lot of colorful code on the screen, and pointed viewers to a website where they could get a small amount of currency. According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, it will lay off about 1,100 employees.

After blaming changing economic conditions that may lead to a "crypto winter" and waiting until his third bullet point to mention that the company has "over-hired", Brian Armstrong wrote on the company's website that the company has "over-hired."

2/ We also 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.

— Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) June 14, 2022

16/ If you're unhappy about something, work as part of the team to raise it along with proposed solutions (it's easy to be a critic, harder to be a part of the solution). If you can't do that and you're going to leak/rant externally then quit. Thanks!

— Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) June 10, 2022

Four days ago, he responded to an employee petition calling for the removal of executives from the company by saying it was "really dumb on multiple levels" and encouraging employees to quit.

The company has been accused of hiring for thousands of roles despite the fact that it is an unsustainable plan and contrary to the wisdom of the industry. The Super Bowl promotion wasn't mentioned, but it did note the over-prioritization of certain projects. There is a drop in activity in the overall marketplace and that has failed to catch on with people who trade in the digital token.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that company executives, including Armstrong, had netted over a billion dollars in share sales since the company's IPO. The company's shares opened at $382 and are currently trading at about $52

There was a staff reduction after the job offers were withdrawn. Some visa holders were left in limbo after the sudden change, as well as others who bypassed other opportunities or decided to leave their previous jobs. Over 300 people were counted in the report.

The price of Bitcoins has gone down in each of the last 12 weeks and now sits at $21,884 after peaking at $69,000 last November.

In the next hour every employee will receive an email from HR letting them know if they are affected or unaffected by the layoffs. Those being let go will get at least 14 weeks of severance, plus an additional two weeks for every year of employment after their first, as well as access to its talent hub that is supposed to try and help.