Coinbase (COIN) will cut roughly 14% of its workforce as CEO Brian Armstrong moves to rebuild the exchange around artificial intelligence and a flatter management structure.

Coinbase Layoff Announcement

Armstrong disclosed the cuts in an internal email shared publicly on Monday, framing the reduction as a response to crypto market volatility and the rapid spread of AI tools across engineering teams.

The CEO said the company is "well-capitalized" with diversified revenue, but argued that a down market requires immediate cost adjustments. He pointed to stablecoins, prediction markets and tokenization as the next adoption wave Coinbase intends to capture.

Affected staff will lose system access immediately. U.S. employees receive at least 16 weeks of base pay plus two weeks for each year worked, their next equity vest, and six months of COBRA coverage. Workers on visas get added transition support, and international staff receive comparable packages.

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Armstrong AI Strategy

Armstrong told staff the company will flatten its hierarchy to no more than five layers below the CEO and COO, with some leaders managing 15 or more direct reports.

Pure managers will be phased out. Every leader must also work as an individual contributor, a model Armstrong described as player-coach. The company plans to build "AI-native pods," including experimental one-person teams that combine engineering, design and product roles.

Armstrong has steadily pushed an AI-first agenda at Coinbase. In Feb. 2025, he ordered all engineers to adopt AI coding tools or face review, and he has repeatedly said small, high-context teams now ship work that previously required full departments.

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