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Coinbase fires 8% of its India workforce amid crypto crash

In May this year, crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it would cut its speed of recruitment amid a crash in the crypto markets.

ET Now Digital

Updated Jun 15, 2022, 15:21 IST

In May, Coinbase announced that it will cut its pace of recruitments.

New Delhi: Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that it will retrench about 1,100 people, or 18 per cent of its workforce, in a clear indication of a deteriorating crypto market that’s wiped off trillions of the total cryptocurrency market value of late. Further, the company's decision to reduce its global workforce will adversely affect its employees in India.

“Yesterday we made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team which affected 18% of Coinbase's global workforce. Although this did impact our India hub, the cuts were much lower than the global average. Approximately ~ 8% of our India team was affected," said Coinbase’s Senior Director Durgesh Kaushik in a tweet.

Simply put, one in twelve of the crypto exchange’s staff were shown the door.

He went on to add that despite the current scenario, India will remain among its ‘top market priorities’ where it will continue to invest in product and engineering teams, adding that Arnab Kumar has joined the company as director of India market expansion to start building foundational partnerships and operations in the country.

Earlier, Kumar was India's director of strategy and fintech at Prosus and has also served at the Niti Aayog— the Centre's apex think tank.

The crypto exchange was on a hiring spree and has recruited about 1,200 employees this year. The company plans to lay off about that number, ending the current quarter with approximately 5,000 staff.

“Having endured four major crypto winters, we have learned that long-term resiliency comes from prudently managing costs while increasing focus and efficiency through down periods. Despite these challenges, India remains a key market for Coinbase,” a n unnamed Coinbase spokesperson told BusinessLine.

In May this year, the US-based crypto company had announced that it would cut its speed of recruitments amid a crash in the crypto markets after announcing plans to triple head count.

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