Coinbase has put a halt on hiring two weeks after announcing plans to slow recruitment and pull some accepted job offers. The crypto exchange said this will extend into the foreseeable future.
Coinbase is also extending its severance policy to those individuals and will assist them with job placement and resume review. The platform is informing prospects of the rescinded offers by email.
L.J. Brock, Coinbase’s chief people officer, highlighted that the company decided to pause hiring for as long as the macro environment requires. He said the extended hiring pause will include backfills, except for roles that are necessary to meet the high standards Coinbase has for security and compliance, as well as for other mission-critical work. Brock said the company always knew that crypto would be volatile. But now, volatility with larger economic factors is testing the company. The executive believes that if Coinbase is flexible and resilient, and remains focused on the long term, it will emerge stronger on the other side.
The crypto exchange has lost over 70% of its value so far, this year. The sell-off in cryptocurrencies, together with economic turmoil has led to a decline in users and shrinking revenue. This has been felt across the tech sector, with companies such as Meta, Uber, and Robinhood cutting headcount by about 9%. Coinbase tripled the size of its staff in 2021 to 3,730 employees. The platform reported a 12-fold increase in second-quarter sales to $2.28 billion following its Nasdaq debut in April 2021. Coinbase’s profit rocketed 4,900% to $1.6 billion.
However, tech companies that saw the highest growth rates in 2021 have been hit the hardest this year. Investors are opting for assets deemed safer in a world of rising interest rates and soaring inflation. Fewer people and investors are going to Coinbase to open accounts and make transactions as Bitcoin has been down by more than one-third this year and Ethereum is down by almost 50%. Last month, the crypto exchange said revenue fell 27% in the latest quarter, and total trading volume plunged from $547 billion in the fourth quarter to $309 billion in the first three months of 2022.
