Coinbase, Again, Terminates Hundreds of Jobs

On Tuesday, Coinbase revealed it is laying off nearly a fifth of its workers to conserve funds amid the current bear market in cryptocurrencies. This is more bad news for the crypto industry, which was struggling to regain pace.

Breaking: Coinbase announced another 950 layoffs today. In June 2022, Coinbase laid off 1,100 people, accounting for 18% of the total number of employees. https://t.co/Oi0Avo5F9O

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 10, 2023

Interestingly, the price of Coinbase shares (NASDAQ: COIN) is trading up by 5% at the time of writing after rising more than 15% on Monday after analysts predicted it would gain from the demise of FTX.

Following a recruiting spree during the pandemic, Coinbase has decided to scale back its business, joining a host of other important tech companies in doing so. Genesis, Gemini, and Kraken are a few other cryptocurrency companies that recently announced similar job cuts.

They join companies like online retailer Amazon, which said this week that it would eliminate 18,000 positions, which is more than the business had anticipated last year. Meanwhile, Salesforce cut 10%, or roughly 7,000 workers, from its staff.

In addition, after assuming ownership of Twitter late last year, Elon Musk reduced its employment by nearly 50%. Finally, Meta cut more than 11,000 positions, or 13%, from its staff.

Coinbase Blames Layoffs on Uncontrollable Growth

According to a blog post that was published Tuesday morning, Coinbase stated it would be laying off roughly 950 employees. The exchange, which had about 4,700 workers as of the end of September, had previously reduced 18% of its workforce in June due to a need to control costs and growth that it claimed had occurred “too swiftly” during the bull market.

Bithumb Comes Under Scrutiny for Alleged Tax Evasion

In other related news, South Korean tax and judicial officials have launched investigations into the South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb. The tax authorities have decided to launch a “special” investigation into the exchange’s operational procedures. A person who is thought to be the company’s largest stakeholder has also been subpoenaed for additional questioning.

⚡️JUST IN: 🇰🇷South Korea’s National Tax Service #NTS has reportedly launched a “special tax investigation” into crypto exchange #Bithumb.

— Satoshi Club (@esatoshiclub) January 10, 2023

According to the most recent sources, tax authorities visited Bithumb’s premises on January 10 in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to determine if the centralized exchange conforms with the tax laws regarding cryptocurrency-related activities. Bithumb Korea, Bithumb Holdings, and its affiliates’ domestic and international transactions are being investigated by the tax authorities for possible tax avoidance.