Coinbase cuts 14% of staff, flattens hierarchy for AI

Coinbase announced Tuesday it will reduce headcount by about 14%, roughly 700 employees, and collapse its management structure to a maximum of five layers beneath the CEO and chief operating officer. The changes are part of a corporate restructuring organized around AI-native pods.

The reorganization requires senior leaders to manage at least 15 direct reports while continuing to contribute as individual contributors. Some teams will combine engineering, design and product responsibilities into single roles to speed decision making and product delivery.

CEO Brian Armstrong framed the changes as a response to a subdued crypto cycle and an inflection in how products are built. He wrote in an internal email that engineers at Coinbase now ship work in days that previously took teams weeks and that non-engineers are increasingly deploying production code.

The new structure centers on AI-native pods: small, cross-disciplinary units intended to operate with more automated development workflows and staff who can manage fleets of agents. In a September 2025 post, Armstrong wrote, “~40% of daily code written at Coinbase is AI-generated. I want to get it to >50% by October.”

The reductions apply across the company. U.S.-based employees affected by the layoffs will receive at least 16 weeks of base pay plus two weeks per year of service, their next equity vesting, and six months of COBRA health coverage. Coinbase said the severance package follows the framework used in prior workforce reductions.

Coinbase has filed a mandatory SEC disclosure for a material restructuring event tied to the layoffs and related cost-cutting measures. The company described itself as well-capitalized and said it is positioning for potential adoption in areas such as stablecoins, prediction markets and tokenization.

The firm has integrated AI into several products, including agent-driven interfaces designed to simplify on-chain transactions. The new organizational design collapses several management layers and aligns resources around AI-driven product development and faster shipping cycles.