Coinbase Slows Down Hiring Plans Amid Market Downturn, Lower Financial Results

cryptonews.com:

The ongoing downturn in the crypto markets is triggering changes to the hiring plans by some of the major industry players, with crypto exchange Coinbase announcing it will slow down its expansion plans with regard to creating new jobs this year. The latest development follows the release of disappointing financial results for the first quarter of 2022.

Heading into this year, the company had planned to triple its size, but given current market conditions, “we feel it’s prudent to slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals,” Emilie Choi, President and Chief Operating Officer of Coinbase, said in a statement.

Per Choi, the “headcount growth is a key input to our financial model, and this is an important action to ensure we manage our business to the scenarios we planned for, specifically the potential Adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] we are aiming to manage to.”

While admitting that the recent developments have brought a “confusing time” and market downturns such as the ongoing one could spur concern, Choi claimed that the exchange was prepared for various market scenarios and is now putting some of them into practice.

“We’ve made an important decision to ensure we’re being rigorous in our resource prioritization so we can emerge from this down cycle even stronger than we are today,” according to the executive.

It is yet to be seen whether other major industry players will make similar announcements in the near future. 

Asked about the potential impact of the ongoing market slowdown on Binance’s hiring plans for this year and beyond, Simon Matthews, PR Director for Europe at the crypto exchange, told Cryptonews.com that he is “not