Coinbase shares advance despite layoff plan

Coinbase Global (COIN) announced on Tuesday that it plans to lay off 700 employees in the coming weeks, News.Az reports, citing Yahoo Finance.

The decision represents a 14% reduction in the company’s workforce as of May 1 and is aimed at controlling operating costs “in response to current market conditions” while also preparing the business for the “AI era,” according to a regulatory filing.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said in a post on X that the company is facing two major forces at once, emphasizing the need to act proactively.

Alongside the layoffs, Armstrong noted that Coinbase intends to streamline its organizational structure by reducing the number of “pure managers” and limiting the hierarchy to no more than five layers between senior leadership and the company’s remaining 4,300 employees.

Shares of Coinbase rose 4% in premarket trading on Tuesday, although the stock has declined about 10% since the start of January.

The company’s stock has been under pressure amid a broader downturn in the cryptocurrency market, which has seen roughly $1.6 trillion wiped from total market capitalization, based on data from CoinMarketCap.

Coinbase also estimated restructuring costs in the range of $50 million to $60 million, with most of the expenses related to employee severance and termination charges.

The firm expects to record the bulk of these costs in its second-quarter financial results, although the exact timing could vary.

Coinbase is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg anticipate that the company will post a 50% drop in adjusted EBITDA compared with the first quarter of 2025.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev