Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange founded (and, up until recently, based) in San Francisco, is now rescinding job offers that were already accepted as headwinds continue to impact the tech and crypto industries at large.

In a letter sent to employees and made public Thursday, Coinbase’s chief people officer L.J. Brock said that the company would take back “a number of accepted offers” and “outstanding offers” — just weeks after the company announced that it would be pausing hiring. (That halt will continue “for the foreseeable future,” he added.) Brock did not specify how many offers would be rescinded.

“As these discussions have evolved, it’s become evident that we need to take more stringent measures to slow our headcount growth,” Brock wrote in the letter.

Affected new hires were informed Thursday, Brock said, via email. An internal email leaked on the anonymous job forum Blind allegedly assured incoming hires that their offers would not be rescinded, even if they had not signed the offers yet.

Those affected will gain access to the company’s “generous severance philosophy” and “a talent hub to allow them to opt-in to receive additional support services.” (The details surrounding the severance package are unclear, but some affected workers on Blind alleged they would receive two months worth of base pay; a representative from Coinbase did not provide further comment.)

This is a tremendous reversal considering the company was decreed a tech “unicorn” — a startup valued at $1 billion — five years ago and at one point last year, snagged an $86 billion public valuation in the stock market. CNBC reported that Coinbase lost 70% of its value this year so far. That said, this turn is not surprising. 

As the crypto industry has all but imploded in recent months, stakeholders have likened the rapid rise and fall of crypto to the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium.


“While we did not make this decision lightly, it is the prudent one given market conditions,” Brock added. “We will continue to evaluate all of our options to responsibly navigate Coinbase through the current cycle.”



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