The recent crash of the cryptocurrency market seems to have affected Coinbase. The leading digital asset platform will reportedly stop hiring employees for two weeks, freeze some business projects, and cut down its spending on Amazon Web Services.
Coinbase Temporarily Hits the Brakes
The past several weeks and months didn’t go well for the cryptocurrency market, with declining prices across all charts, and this harmed some of the largest companies in the industry. One of them was Coinbase, which reported Q1 2022 losses in excess of $400 million.
Somewhat expectedly, these developments led to a substantial change of direction for the largest US-based exchange, which said recently that it had to slow down on new hirings.
According to a report by The Information, the company has indeed followed through on this and will stop employing new staff for the next 14 days. The exchange will also halt certain business endeavors and reduce its spending on Amazon Web Services.
“This slow down will also force us to be more rigorous in our prioritization. We’re in a strong position — we have a solid balance sheet, and we’ve been through several market downturns before, and we’ve emerged stronger every time,” said Emilie Choi in a letter obtained by The Information – President and COO at Coinbase.
The firm also intends to compensate its employees by giving them stock grants. Last year, Coinbase started trading on Nasdaq, becoming the first major exchange to have its shares publicly traded. Upon launch, COIN traded at nearly $400, while currently, it hovers around $67.
The slowing hiring spree goes against the company’s ambitions to triple the team size. During Q1 2022, Coinbase hired 1,200 employees, bringing the total number to over 5,000. By the looks of it, the future condition of the crypto market will play a vital role in how the expansion will develop throughout the year.
CPO’s Statement on the Matter
Surojit Chatterjee – Chief Product Officer at Coinbase – also weighed in on the company’s plans for the short-term future. The executive tweeted that the exchange will direct its attention to “critical revenue-generating products.” Such offerings include retail and institutional services, as well as staking.
The executive further disclosed that Coinbase will strengthen its team’s discipline and look for enhanced efficiency:
“Lastly, I called on our teams to: rigorously prioritize core initiatives for highest impact, improve efficiencies, and ensure all our projects are set up for long-term success.”