Zeros

Coinbase is cutting 700 jobs and calling it an AI transformation. Some of us have seen this movie before. If you've been around the digital currency space long enough, certain plot points start to feel like old wallpaper — peeling at the edges, but still recognizable. Markets dip. Companies tighten their belts . And someone, sitting in a very comfortable chair, writes a very sincere email about the future. Coinbase just sent that email. CEO Brian Armstrong announced this week that Coinbase is eliminating approximately 700 positions, which is roughly 14% of its global workforce . The official explanation is a two-for-one: a softening digital asset market and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence. Armstrong painted it as a deliberate pivot, a chance to, "rebuild Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it." One-person teams. Engineers who design, build, and product-manage simultaneously. Fleets of AI agents where departments ...