“The entire industry is experiencing a crisis of confidence and transaction volume remains very weak. These job cuts are a reflection of the current challenging environment,” said Owen Lau, an analyst at Oppenheimer.
Last year, rising interest rates and fears of an economic downturn wiped out more than a trillion dollars from the cryptocurrency sector. The slump also forced key industry players such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius Network to shut down.
The biggest blow, however, came after the largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, filed for bankruptcy in November. Its rapid decline has triggered harsh regulatory scrutiny over the way major exchanges guard user funds.
“We have also witnessed the fallout from unscrupulous players in the industry, and there could still be more contagion,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post. “We are going to close several projects where we have a lower chance of success.”
Coinbase said it had no additional comment on the plan.
The woes of the crypto world have continued this year, marked by plummeting deposits, layoffs and multiple legal hurdles.
Coinbase cut more than 60 jobs in its institutional recruiting and onboarding teams in November, after cutting 1,100 jobs, or 18% of its workforce, in June.
The company’s shares lost about 86% of their value last year, in line with the industry’s fall from grace.
