Coinbase Cuts About One in Seven Jobs in Broad Restructure

Coinbase said Tuesday it will eliminate roughly 700 positions — about one in seven roles at the cryptocurrency exchange — as part of a company-wide reorganization that its leadership says is intended to shrink costs and scale up the use of artificial intelligence. The company told regulators it expects severance and related charges of about $50 million to $60 million tied to the reductions.

The shake-up will compress the company’s reporting tiers to five levels beneath the CEO and chief operating officer, and it imposes new expectations that managers take on more hands-on work. Under the plan, some leaders could be responsible for more than 15 direct reports. Coinbase also plans to pilot very small, multi-skilled units that rely on AI, including trials of so-called one-person teams that combine engineering, product and design responsibilities.

CEO Brian Armstrong framed the moves in a message on the company’s website and to staff, pointing to swings in crypto markets and faster productivity driven by machine learning tools as reasons to alter the company’s cost base now rather than later. He argued the company needs to operate with fewer layers of coordination and to use automation and AI-driven workflows more broadly across roles.

Industry observers say the mix of head-count reductions and tighter team structures reflects a wider shift in tech. “Firms are betting that tools powered by machine learning let much smaller groups do work that previously required larger staffs,” said Jordan Lee, a technology analyst. “That can boost output, but it also raises questions about institutional memory and workload distribution.”

Coinbase didn’t give a firm timetable for the changes or for notifying affected employees. The company emphasized that the reorganization aims to speed decision-making and lower costs as it adapts to a volatile market and to new ways of building products with AI assistance.