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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

81–90 of 616 posts

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#81

> Coinbase has survived through four major crypto winters I don't understand - has crypto been around long enough to have winters? When were they?

If we're talking Bitcoin: - Early 2014 ($1,000 -> $300) - Late 2018/Early 2018 ($19,500 -> $6,800) - April 2021 ($63,000 -> $35,000) - Nov 2021-Now ($67,000-> $22,000)

I think 'winter' implies a long period of dormancy. The 'AI winter' was like a decade long. These were normal corrections.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#82
post #12

>If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees. I realize that removal of access will feel sudden and unexpected, and this is not the experience I wanted for you. Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice, to ensur…

Isn't this practice pretty common in Finance? I've heard of people who when they resigned (or fired) immediately got their access revoked and were escorted out the door by security (or if they were lucky, swing by their desk to pick up their stuff).

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#83
post #43

To everyone: 2017 had the exact same pattern. Coinbase is suffering this time because they didn't learn at all the lessons that happened to the companies in 2017. For example, you will not see this happen with Kraken. This is normal, nothing to see here.

Coinbase has survived something like 4 downturns before, the previous ones on the same strategy that they are employing now. So not sure what lessons they are not applying, that others are?

In which prior downturn did the valuation of Coinbase (and other unicorns) get nuked -90%?

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#84
post #53

Why has the crypto boom and bust lined up so closely with the COVID pandemic? Is it a coincidence or is there some underlying cause?

Boom was about the money supply; bust is about rising interest rates to fight inflation.

COVID was the cause of the money supply, and now COVID is also the cause of ongoing supply shortages (in addition to money supply hangover), resulting in high inflation.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#85

It’s been pretty interesting watching YC backed Coinbase get absolutely crushed by FTX, which has a higher % of crypto trading volume despite having less than 10% of the headcount. Crypto is a zero sum game, and the old Paul Graham essays and other tired VC dogmas really only work in positive sum games. FTX was founded by traders which is valuable when the ultimate purpose of the crypto industry is to separate uninfo…

FTX is also going to feel a lot of pain when the crypto market crash completes. None of these companies are IMO sustainable without mass interest in cryptocurrencies, which is rapidly fading as people realise they're not going to get rich quick.

FTX is in deep with Tether. I expect they'll pull some tricks out of their collective hats to avoid a complete collapse.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#86
post #3

If we follow the weekly updates: 1. First a hiring "slowdown". 2. Hiring freeze and rescinded offers. 3. 18% layoffs. What's the reason behind announcing it in stages? Don't they receive much more negative publicity this way? Or are they really making decisions from one week for the next?

It's called denial. Also the slow release of bad news is an attempt to stem the losses of employees leaving a sinking ship. Controlling the press narrative. Lots of reasons for it. And no, tech "journalism" doesn't work as it used to, so drip by drip of this bad news doesn't hurt any worse than ripping the bandaid off.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#87
post #46

It’s been pretty interesting watching YC backed Coinbase get absolutely crushed by FTX, which has a higher % of crypto trading volume despite having less than 10% of the headcount. Crypto is a zero sum game, and the old Paul Graham essays and other tired VC dogmas really only work in positive sum games. FTX was founded by traders which is valuable when the ultimate purpose of the crypto industry is to separate uninfo…

FTX's success is a bit questionable. They are the biggest buyer of USDT/Tether and shady things are probably going on there.

Does that say much? They're the biggest buyer because USDT is the biggest stablecoin.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#90
post #17

Crypto is clearly crashing but I’m more curious if a reckoning will hit FAANG, particularly Google. I know one person there who is the spouse of a good friend, and they make nearly 7 figures as a middle manager (although I’m unsure what happens with the stock declines and RSUs). Can these companies support legions of absurdly highly paid people? GOOG is down 25% this year, what will happen when it drops 50%?

Google made $18000000000 profit last year. It could pay employees out of cash revenue, not out of stock prices if it wanted.

I don't know about Google in particular but I think RSUs are generally issued in terms of an amount of stock, not a dollar amount. As the share price goes down then Google becomes less competitive against companies with a more stable stock price who also issue RSUs.

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