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- Coinbase is laying off 14% of its staff.
- Its CEO cited AI as the key reason for this, as it pivots to tiny teams and away from layers of management.
- The CEO’s memo to staff had all the classic ingredients of a 2026 layoff letter.
Same story, different company.
Crypto firm Coinbase is the latest company to shed staff, and the CEO Brian Armstrong’s memo to workers follows the same tried-and-tested format that its tech brothers and sisters in the same boat have used this year.
Business Insider’s Dan DeFrancesco even joked about how cliché these letters have become in his newsletter earlier this month.
“Today is a SAD ADJECTIVE day for us. We’re unfortunately saying goodbye to PERCENTAGE of our staff. This decision wasn’t easy to make, but it’s one that needed to be done to secure COMPANY NAME’S future,” DaFrancesco wrote, before laying out all the recycled explanations and phrases that appear to be commonplace in the 2026 layoff letter.
‘AI is changing how we work’
CEO Brian Armstrong explained in his letter to staff that the reason for the layoffs was twofold:
- The business is volatile and is currently in a “down market” phase, so it needs to cut costs.
- AI is a-knocking.
“AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks,” Armstrong wrote.
“The pace of what’s possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it’s accelerating every day,” he added.
Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the layoffs.
The crypto firm is among more than two dozen major companies that have cut significant numbers of staff this year. And many have followed an almost identical format in informing their employees of layoffs. Block, Atlassian, and Snap are recent examples.
Like these other examples, Coinbase said it is eliminating layers of management and flattening its structure.
These elements slow the business down and create a “coordination tax,” he wrote.
This change will mean smaller teams — in some cases, just one person and their AI agents — and no “pure managers” — meaning everyone will need to get their hands dirty now, he said.
Middle managers have been the object of culling at major tech companies for years. The rise of AI has exacerbated this further.
“AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs,” Armstrong wrote.
Armstrong ended his letter by acknowledging how difficult the news would be for the employees who remain.
“We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you’ve been in the trenches with,” he wrote, but “the Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission.”
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