SAN FRANCISCO — Coinbase said it is cutting about 14% of its workforce as artificial intelligence reshapes how the company operates, with CEO Brian Armstrong calling the shift an “inflection point” for the business.
In a company blog post Tuesday, Armstrong said roughly 700 employees were laid off as the crypto exchange moves to become “lean, fast, and AI-native.”
“The biggest risk now is not taking action,” Armstrong wrote. “We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.”
Armstrong said advances in artificial intelligence are allowing engineers to complete tasks in a fraction of the time previously required, while non-technical teams are increasingly able to produce code and automate workflows.
He also cited broader market pressures, noting the cryptocurrency sector remains in a downturn.
‘Need to Adjust Costs’
“We need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth,” Armstrong wrote.
The layoffs come as other crypto and fintech firms, including Block, Crypto.com and Bolt, have also reduced headcount while increasing investments in AI.
In March, Kris Marszalek said companies that fail to quickly adopt AI risk falling behind, writing on social media that firms pairing AI tools with top performers can achieve “a level of scale and precision that was previously impossible.”
As part of its restructuring, Coinbase plans to flatten its organizational structure to no more than five layers below the CEO and chief operating officer, with managers expected to serve as individual contributors rather than purely supervisory roles.
Managers to be ‘Player-Coaches’
“Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor,” Armstrong wrote. “Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams.”
Armstrong said the changes are intended to make the company more resilient to market cycles and better positioned for future growth.
According to its most recent annual filing, Coinbase employed 4,951 people as of December.
The company said affected U.S. employees will receive 16 weeks of pay plus an additional two weeks for each year worked, along with their next equity vesting and six months of health insurance. Employees on visas will receive transition support, and workers outside the United States will be offered comparable benefits based on local regulations.
Block Co-Founder Issues Statement Following Job Cuts
Separately, in the wake of sweeping layoffs at Block, co-founder Jack Dorsey is outlining a vision for companies with far fewer managers, arguing that artificial intelligence could replace traditional corporate hierarchies.
In a blog post co-written with Roelof Botha and published by Sequoia Capital, the authors contend that advances in AI now allow software systems to perform many of the coordination tasks historically handled by middle management.
The post, titled “From Hierarchy to Intelligence,” argues that companies have long relied on layers of managers to move information up and down organizational chains, align teams and make decisions. But AI systems can now maintain a continuously updated model of an entire business and coordinate work in real time, reducing the need for those intermediary roles, according to the authors.
Dorsey and Botha propose replacing traditional hierarchies with an AI-centered structure in which “intelligence” resides in the system rather than in management layers. Employees would operate at the “edge,” using insights generated by AI to make decisions more independently, while still handling judgment-based tasks such as ethics, culture and high-stakes calls.
Three Primary Roles
Under the model, companies would shift to three primary roles:
- Individual contributors, described as deep specialists who rely on AI-generated context instead of managers to guide decisions.
- Directly responsible individuals, who oversee specific problems or outcomes and can draw resources across teams.
- “Player-coaches,” who replace traditional managers by combining hands-on work with mentoring and talent development.
The authors also outline a broader transformation in how companies build products. Rather than relying on fixed roadmaps set by managers, AI systems could dynamically assemble solutions based on real-time customer data and identify gaps that inform future development.
Job Cuts Announced
The blog post follows Block’s February announcement that it would cut roughly 4,000 jobs, about 40% of its workforce, a move Dorsey has framed as part of a shift toward an AI-driven operating model.
Dorsey and Botha emphasized that the transition is still in its early stages and may face setbacks. But they argue the shift is not merely about cost-cutting, writing that AI should fundamentally redefine how companies operate rather than simply improve existing workflows.
“If this works,” they suggest, organizations could move away from rigid hierarchies toward leaner, faster structures built around AI-driven intelligence.
