Coinbase Lays Off 1,100 Employees, 8 Percent Of India Team Affected; Axed Employee Shares Emotional Post

“We lost systems before being notified, I even just reserved a place for team drinks for tomorrow,” the laid-off Coinbase employee wrote.

Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US by trading volume and the first crypto company to get listed on Fortune 500, has laid off around 18 percent of its global workforce on Tuesday. A total of about 1,100 positions were relieved. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted, “The broader market downturn means that we need to be more mindful of costs as we head into a potential recession.” Coinbase India’s Senior Director Durgesh Kaushik took to Twitter to share that approximately eight percent on the team has been affected in the country. Separately, Coinbase’s recruitment manager for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market also shared an emotional note after getting laid off, saying that he now has “30 days to pick up my entire life and leave Singapore after 12 years in Asia.”

In his tweet, Armstong said, “We also grew quite quickly over the past two years and have begun to operate less efficiently at our new size. It will take us some time to adjust to this new scale before growing again.”

He also added that the company has put “some key programmes in place to try and minimise the impact” on affected employees.

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However, when it comes down to employees themselves, the announcement or measures doesn’t do much to quell the “impact.” Clinton Gleave, the compay’s axed APAC recruitment manager posted on LinkedIn: “After building our entire APAC expansion from scratch, even overperforming, I've been laid off from Coinbase and have 30 days to pick up my entire life and leave Singapore after 12 years in Asia. I know our CEO didn't make this decision lightly, and have nothing but respect for Brian Armstrong, but that doesn't change the impact.”

Gleave went on to add, “We lost systems before being notified, I even just reserved a place for team drinks for tomorrow.. If you see this feel free to take over the reservation.”

Following Armstrong’s announcement, Kaushik tweeted on Wednesday that the layoffs did impact Coinbases’s India hub, however the cuts were much lower than the global average.

“For those affected, we are deeply grateful for your contributions and will do everything we can to ensure that you find your next great opportunity,” wrote Kaushik. He also announced the appointment of Arnab Kumar as the new Director of India Market Expansion “to start building foundational partnerships and operations in the country.”