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Comments (272)

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  azinman2
  "Non-technical teams are now shipping production code"Boy that's scary for a company that's effectively fintech...
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  wiseowise
  > - No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams.Geeks who didn't even stand near professional sports should really shut up about anything sport related, lol.I would really like to see professional, established coach running around with young prodigies on a peak of their biology.> - AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.And AI clowns will cheer and applaud this, not seeing that they're now doing the job of 5(!) people with the same salary. Why is nobody talking about this?Also, I find it really bizarre that those neo feudal lords see their companies as just a life stock to count. They don't even count people, just see them as numbers to reduce/scale up. Modern tsardom, but instead of being tied via official decree you're now tied by your lifestyle and family."Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make"
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  scottlamb
  > We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talentIs this code for "we're firing all the old people"? As I understand it, I can say I'll only hire proficient English speakers (a "bona fide occupational requirement"), but I can't say I'll only hire native speakers, as that would discriminate against various protected groups. This seems like the same thing—proficiency may be a bona fide requirement, but expecting they learned this year's workflow first is age discrimination.I don't expect ethical conduct from crypto companies and will not be sad if they are sued into oblivion.
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  willio58
  > Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports.As someone who did have 15 direct reports for a while, it’s a joke.You basically are their manager in name only. Your time is so split you can’t give any one direct reports the attention they deserve. Quarterly and annual reviews are a farce because you genuinely don’t really know how people are doing except the signals you can receive when you’re not in a meeting with one of your 15 reports.Just goes to show how far up their own asses some CEOs are. Meanwhile real people just want a boss who cares. Hope Brian feels happier with an extra billion dollars or whatever this year!
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  Saline9515
  The reality is that Coinbase earns on trading volume, and since we are in a crypto bear market, revenue is down. So they have to cut to keep the company profitable (or in line with what the investors expect).While AI is likely a productivity boost, the underlying reason is not AI.
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  mooreds
  I'll probably get some flack for this, but this is about as good of a layoff email as he could have sent.* explains the reasons (financials, AI enablement)* talks about what folks who are leaving get in detail (first) and thanks them* talks to the folks who are stayingLayoffs are hard, no doubt, and I am not sure he's making the right choice. I see plenty of doubt about some of the actions in other comments that echoes mine. I certainly wouldn't want to have 15 direct reports and also ship production code regularly. But as CEO, it's his job to make these kinds of choices.The proof is in the pudding as they say. We'll see how Coinbase does with this new orientation in the next year or so and that will determine if this was a wise or foolish move. Is there a flood of talent leaving? Major breaches? Business as usual with better than expected profits?Time will tell.
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  arthurjj
  > employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRAAs someone who lived through multiple rounds of layoffs at big tech companies this seemed quite generous.
• londons_explore
  AI is the next big hype.Crypto was a big hype of last decade.Every year that goes by there are fewer people interested in an old hype, and therefore a smaller and smaller market for coinbase.Coinbase is on a path to death. It might take 20 years, but the decline has already begun.
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  saos
  > Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. TIs Brian here? Can he speak more to this? What exactly are non technicals shipping to production code?I've got no position in Coinbase but is that a wise thing to say as a public company? I'd be alarmed if I were a share holder
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  tmaly
  Publicly traded companies get their stock price punished if they just announce layoffs, whereas if they say it is because of AI, they do not see the same treatment.If you look at Coinbase in 2020 they had roughly 1,200 employees. By 2022 they had roughly 4,500 employees.They over hired and now they are pairing back, this is all it is.
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  ravenstine
  > We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.Experimenting or cost-cutting? Are these one-person "teams" you g to be paid more for having multi-domain roles regardless of how fast AI can churn out pseudo-MVPs?We're going to see this become a trend beyond Coinbase, IMO. The idea that companies just want employees to be more productive is a farce. The C-suite would prefer to make no profit, have few to no employees, and get personally richer in the process.
• runjake
  I keep seeing $x4% figures for layoffs. Is that right below the legal threshold for layoffs (e.g., 15%), or am I imagining patterns that aren't there?
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  5701652400
  when we will see "we do not need CEO anymore. AI can do it better. we are sorry to let go CEO, we do not need him".
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  upupupandaway
  > Non-technical teams are now shipping production codeWith the amount of tech leaders blabbering about this, I came to the conclusion that the profession of the future is going to be Security Engineer.
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  martypitt
  > Rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it.Oof. That smacks of hubris and valley-buzzwordism.> Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports.> Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor.So, a manager who's managing 15 people AND expected to ship -- that sounds awful for both sides.
• mavelikara
  How does the “flattening” affect equity grants. With fewer employees, does each get larger equity stakes?
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  mhitza
  At least the compensation package sounds nice for those layed off.What I'm really intrigued by is the non technical staff deploying code to production. Now that's a gamble I want to see in the crypto space.
• monksy
  Consider this and I think it needs to be acknowledged:If you're a leader and you've said that your company is too big and have to downsize by 10+%. This is a you're the problem.Firstly, the business needs to have active business and new initives. If you are not supporting that: You've failed.If you're so inefficient that you need that extra 14%, you made that mistake.If you "overhired" and didn't find a way to use that extra capacity to find the business.. you are the problem.If you say that AI has changed your business, that 14% more people means 14%*the AI lift of more capacity to accomplish greater things.It's not the talent, and it's not the talents' fault for your issues. A lot of people assume that layoffs means removal of bad performers. The reality is not there.
• serial_dev
  Why spend any time thinking about the people at your company, when you could just prompt “make a heartfelt tweet announcing firing a bunch of people, make sure you pitch it in a way that we are seen as an AI company”.
• carterschonwald
  16weeks plus week or so per year of service is pretty good
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  bronxpockfabz
  > Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoptionSince roughly 2018 I reckon, at least.
• ghnbv
  Bitcoin is down from its highs and the big boys are in. Tether collateral is handled by Lutnick's Cantor & Fitzgerald and moved to BFF Bukele's El Salvador. Previously the combo was Deltec Bank (CIA linked) in the Caribbean.The Tether narrative has just been broken and Iranian assets have been frozen:https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/24/politics/us-freezes-crypt...This of course means that the primary use case of Bitcoin, sanctions' evasion, is no longer secure.It becomes clearer and cleared that Lutnick and Trump are actually the deep state and the big boys mean it. Further crackdowns on China and Russia are coming and it does not look good for Bitcoin.But by all means, cite AI nonsense as a favor to fellow founders to pump up their valuations.
• kelvinjps10
  What I'm worried is the push fo AI here, for a software platform that handles money is troublesome, I use coin base because I can send money to my family in other countries with no fees
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  paulbjensen
  3 years ago they were touting NFTs as the next big thing.Today, not a single mention in that email.I can't help but feel that there is a superficial chasing of trends at play here (adopting the same playbook that Block used earlier).Question is, where will we all be in 3 years from now?
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  VirusNewbie
  Coinbase famously rescinded offers days before people joined when they did a previously huge layoff. That's absolutely diabolical and I sometimes fantasize about accepting a job there and just ghosting them.
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  baristaGeek
  Ok I actually like the idea of flatter orgs and player-coaches a lot.However, do we really need them to AI-wash the fact that as a lot of companies, this company over-hired during ZIRP? Do we really need them to AI-wash the fact that the crypto hype is gone, therefore their business is smaller? “Company as intelligence” and “AI productivity” are just buzzwords so their stock price doesn’t suffer.
• upupupandaway
  Brian once came to Hacker News to comment on a thread I posted (about being made an offer then ghosted by Stripe for a leadership position), so if he has the time for that I'd love to see him here talking about the non-technical teams thing. Could be an interesting discussion.
• throwaw12
  Apart from "AI" making us productive talk.Can anyone share how and when they see market is getting in a better shape?Specifically I am curious, how we would be working with AIs even if market gets in a better shape
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  blizdiddy
  I usually feel bad for laid off engineers, but these guys profited off of pump and dump wealth-funneling to the rich. Sucks to suck. They all played a part in normalizing scams.
• insane_dreamer
  I never much liked Coinbase. I like them much less now.
• gustavus
  > Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated.As a security engineer this statements fills me dread.
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  orphereus
  If I were an employee that got laid off with this email, I'd be really angry and sad.
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  conception
  Lol “Non-technical teams are now shipping production code” definitely what I want my financial institution doing.
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  FerretFred
  >I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production codeGood luck to those (human) teams when the briefness stuff hits the fan thanks to an AI hallucination... oh wait, the Active Individually-contributing leaders will be there to lend a hand, right?
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  ablation
  "Non-technical teams are now shipping production code"
• DocTomoe
  > Leaders will own much moreHeh. This is the kind of phrasing that just begs to be misunderstood.
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  jqpabc123
  Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks.And I suspect that over the coming year, we'll be watching the consequences of this unfold.
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  keybored
  > Second, 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. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day.As a reward, people driving the productivity have now received a reduction in their colleague pool.
• close04
  > Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoptionCrypto is always about to take off. If the company is sitting so well, and is facing imminent growth, then they don't need to do layoffs, they want to. Or the company is not sitting so rosy and they're not too sure about their future.> Non-technical teams are now shipping production codeWhat could go wrong?
• sergiotapia
  Even his post is written by AI. Now that's efficiency!
• newobj
  ok sure good luck. more like conbase anyway
• BoggleOhYeah
  What is going to be the event that triggers Wall Street to realize a lot of these companies have been lying about their financials?
• andy_ppp
  "Difficult decision" says billionaire sacking people, many of whom have families, so he can make even more money.
• varispeed
  To me that sounds like financial issues dressed in PR slop.
• rvz
  Coinbase has achieved "AGI" internally.
• nojvek
  Crypto in bear market, volume is down. Less money to skim. Layoff.The AI bullshit is CEO feel-good talk.
• iridione
  [flagged]
• 5701652400
  [dead]
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  josefritzishere
  Lots of layoffs this year. The economy is in bad shape.
• anon
  undefined
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  SamPatt
  Many comments are mocking the "Non-technical teams are now shipping production code" line as an obvious disaster waiting to happen.I think this will be commonplace in the not too distant future.Some disasters will happen, just like they did before AI. Skeptics will gleefully point out these failures while more and more non-technical teams ship code.
• spuwho
  I have an announcement to make, using Claude I have now in development an AI model that can replace the CEO, the Board Chair, the CFO and CTO of any company on Earth.I was shocked at how easy it was to train and develop a model that can replace senior leadership in a company.The CEO was the easiest. I simply loaded the model with as much corporate jargon, double talk and the ability to talk down to people. The model nearly wrote itself.Then simply ingesting the Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Financial Times and SEC 10-K reports and annual reports, I was able to compile the perfect CFO. It was able to spit out regulatory reports, answer questions on investor calls.Strangely, the component of the model I had write in house was the ability to give up part of their bonus to keep key people employed. Seems in all of those financial reports, there were no examples of anyome that the model could leverage.