Editing by Nathaniel Cajuday

About 950 employees of crypto trading platform Coinbase are about to say goodbye to the firm, including several Filipino staff. This is after Coinbase decided to strike its third round of layoffs.According to CEO Brian Armstrong, the employee layoff was part of their restructuring plan as well as a means of mitigating the effects of the still ongoing crypto winter.However, affected employees were assured by the firm that they would receive at least 14 weeks of base pay, health insurance, and assistance finding a next job.

Six months after its first layoff, cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN.O) confirmed that it is set to let go of another batch of employees. For this round, the firm will lay off 950 of its employees, or 20% of its workforce, explaining that this move was part of their restructuring plan as well as a means of mitigating the effects of the still ongoing crypto winter. 

According to Coinbase, the workforce cut complies with its plan to reduce costs by 25 percent this quarter; the layoffs would cost between $149 million and $163 million. 

Following this decision, some of the Filipino employees affected went to the professional social network LinkedIn to share their sentiments as well as to reopen themselves to new opportunities.

One of whom is Angie Fe Recla, Coinbase’s former IT onboarding specialist, who expressed that despite the sudden bad news, “the last 2 years have been amazing,” and that she is “grateful for the experience and coworkers gained.”

“Yup, I was part of the #coinbase 20% layoff along with another 950 talented folks. I absolutely do not regret my decision to take a chance with Coinbase, if it happened again the same way, I’d make the same choice. My journey in Coinbase was short-lived, but I have learned a lot and met great people along the way. Yes it definitely sucks to happen, and this is my first time experiencing this, but life moves on. Could be a blessing in disguise. I’ll take some time to process and determine my next step,” Kaye Miranda, the company’s now-former platform integrity analyst, wrote in a different statement.

Also, Samuel Brendt Velez, a workforce scheduler for Coinbase, stated that, “it was a pleasure working with all the top talents and I really learned a lot with my stay there. It was an honor working with you all and for the company as well.”

The former employees were assured by the firm that they would receive at least 14 weeks of base pay, health insurance, and assistance finding a next job.

Since the layoff announcement, the value of the company has gone up by 12.96% and is currently valued at $43.23, according to data from Google Finance. 

Last year, also citing the crypto winter, the exchange already reduced its workforce by 18%, or almost 1,100 people. He also noted that the layoff was due to the company having “over-hired” in its attempt to take advantage of “new use cases enabled by crypto getting traction practically every week.” (Read more: Coinbase Layoffs Extends to Southeast Asia Operations) Then in November, the firm cut another 60 jobs in its recruiting and institutional onboarding teams. 

Coinbase was not the only company to lay off employees in 2022; cryptocurrency firms Gemini, BlockFi, and Crypto.com also let go of some of their staff. Gemini reduced its workforce by 10%, BlockFi laid off 20% of its 850 employees, and Crypto.com let go of around 260 workers, or around 5% of its workforce.

Accordingly, Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong noted in a blog post regarding the first layoff that “in hindsight, we could have cut further.”

“In 2022, the crypto market trended downwards along with the broader macroeconomy. We also saw the fallout from unscrupulous actors in the industry, and there could still be further contagion,” Armstrong stated in the same blog, citing the recent fall of FTX. 

Further, he also wrote that the recent developments in the cryptocurrency space, including the fall of what he described as “a large competitor,” could “end up benefiting Coinbase greatly.” He added that “dark times also weed out bad companies, as we’re seeing right now.”

The former crypto exchange giant FTX collapsed last November after a Coindesk article revealed the imbalance in the assets of FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research. To date, the founder and former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been arrested and recently pleaded not guilty over the charges filed against him, such as wire fraud and campaign finance violations. His trial will commence in October. (Read more:  FTX Founder Pleads Not Guilty, Trial to Start in October)

This article is published on BitPinas: Filipino Employees Among Coinbase’s 20% Staff Layoff

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ January 12, 2023 4:30 am