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Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is heading into its next earnings call with fewer people on its payroll.
In an email to staff sent on May 5, CEO Brian Armstrong announced the company would be reducing its global headcount.
The announcement lands just two days before Coinbase is scheduled to report its first quarter of 2026 financial results on May 7, after the market closes.
Related: Veteran fund manager sends harsh warning on crypto bankruptcy, layoffs
The company's last quarterly report, for the fourth quarter of 2025, showed total revenue of $1.78 billion, down 5% quarter over quarter.
It also reported a net loss of $666.7 million, driven largely by non-cash losses on its crypto investment portfolio and its stake in Circle (NYSE: CRCL).
Core operations, however, remained profitable, with adjusted EBITDA coming in at $566 million.
Ahead of the next earnings, analysts Gautam Chhugani from Bernstein, Benjamin Budish from Barclays and Dan Dolev from Mizuho Securities reiterated their respective positions on May 5, right around the time the news of the layoff spread. However, their price expectations and ratings vary.
As per TipRanks, Chhugani reiterated his "Buy" rating with a $330 price target, while Budish stayed confident with his $140 price target and "Sell" rating. However, Dolev decided to slash the price target from $202.99 to $170 while maintaining his "Hold" rating.
At press time, COIN stock was trading 4.09% higher during pre-market hours at $211.25.
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Coinbase's next layoff is going to affect about 14% of the global staff
"Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%."
Armstrong cited crypto market volatility and the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence as the reasons behind the layoff.
The business, he wrote, remains cyclical quarter to quarter, and with the market currently in a down phase, the company is "still volatile from quarter to quarter" and needed to restructure its cost base before the next growth wave arrives.
At the same time, he pointed to a fundamental shift in productivity enabled by artificial intelligence.
"Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated."
Armstrong described the company's ambition as becoming what he called an "intelligence," with human employees working at the edges rather than at the center of every workflow.
This means flattening the organizational hierarchy to no more than five layers below the CEO and COO, eliminating pure management roles in favor of player-coaches who contribute individually alongside their teams, and shrinking pod sizes, in some cases, down to a single person expected to operate across engineering, design, and product functions simultaneously.
For those departing, Armstrong outlined a severance package that includes a minimum of 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year worked, the next equity vest, and six months of COBRA health coverage. Employees on work visas will receive additional transition support.
Related: 'The Good, Bad and Ugly': Film Looks at CEO Brian Armstrong's Creation of Coinbase
This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.