Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced Tuesday, May 5, that the company will cut its workforce by about 14% — a move Armstrong described as “sudden and harsh” but necessary to position the exchange for what he called a new phase of AI-driven operations.
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In a post on Based on Coinbase’s last disclosed full-time employee count of 4,951 as of December 31, 2025, the reduction is estimated to affect approximately 693 people, according to reporting by Stocktwits.
Coinbase uses AI to reshape the equation?
Armstrong did not interpret the cuts as a defensive reaction by the market, but as a structural redesign. According to Bitcoin Magazine’s coverage of the announcement, engineers at Coinbase are now delivering in days what previously required entire teams of weeks of work, a shift Armstrong attributed directly to AI tools.
The company has already required engineers to adopt platforms like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, with a goal of 50% AI-written code. Armstrong also described experiments with “AI-native pods” – including what he called “one-person teams” – that combine engineering, design and product responsibilities into a single role.
The restructuring is aimed at flatter organizational structures, fewer management layers and a tighter focus on small teams with a big impact, according to the announcement.
A pattern with a new argument
This isn’t the first time Coinbase has moved aggressively on the workforce front. The exchange cut 18% of its workforce in June 2022 as crypto prices collapsed, then eliminated another 20% — about 950 employees — in January 2023 after the FTX implosion. Every previous cut was a reaction from the market. The 2026 round has a different rationale: operational redesign around AI, not surviving during a recession.
Affected U.S. employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of base pay, two additional weeks per year of service, their next stock vest and six months of COBRA health coverage, according to the announcement. Armstrong stated that the company “remains well positioned to weather any storm.”
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At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $79,500, with the broader market showing little immediate reaction to the Coinbase news.
BTC's price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cover image of Grok, BTCUSD chart on Tradingview