Coinbase Slows Down Hiring Amid Market Downturn, India Head Said to Be Moving to US

Coinbase crypto exchange has found itself under the limelight after it reported a 44 percent loss in trading values. In a fresh development, the company has said that it has slowed down hiring for the time being. Coinbase made it to the headlines recently, after it said in a government filing that users could lose direct claims to the crypto assets they hold on Coinbase, in the event of a bankruptcy. This SEC filing from Coinbase added financial trouble rumours for the company.

“Heading into this year, we planned to triple the size of the company. Given current market conditions, we feel it’s prudent to slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals,” said a blog post by Emilie Choi, Coinbase’s president and chief operating officer.

Founded and based in the US, Coinbase relies majorly on crypto trading for its revenue.

In the first quarter of 2021, the crypto exchange said its trading volume generated $309 billion (roughly Rs. 23,86,484 crore). The figure is significantly lesser than the trading volume of $547 billion (roughly Rs. 42,23,250 crore) that Coinbase had reported in the fourth quarter of 2021.

This could also be an important factor in driving the company towards a hiring slowdown.

Meanwhile, Pankaj Gupta, the India site head of Coinbase is reportedly moving closer to the company headquarters in the US.

As per an internal email sent to relevant employees, Gupta reportedly said his entire family is relocating to the US due to “personal reasons”.

Coinbase had a bitter experience in India recently when it was made to roll back a newly launched feature on its app for Indian users.

In April, Coinbase had announced that Indians would be able to purchase crypto assets via UPI payment methods on its app. The step was declared “unrecognised” by the government of India, after which it was retracted days after its launch.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently addressed the incident saying that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) exudes “informal pressure” on the crypto sector.

It is however noteworthy, that in April, Coinbase was inviting Indian developers from all small and big cities and regions to apply for remote jobs with them. At the time, Gupta had told Gadgets 360 that Indians have the potential to redefine the Web3 sector with their finetuned technical aptitude.

The company has rubbished all rumours suggesting that it is headed towards capital crunch after the SEC filing.

“We know this is a confusing time and that market downturns can feel scary. But as we said at last week’s Town Hall, we plan for all market scenarios, and now we are starting to put some of those plans into practice,” Choi added. “We’re in a strong position — we have a solid balance sheet and we’ve been through several market downturns before, and we’ve emerged stronger every time.”

Coinbase launched in June 2012 and almost has a decade of industry experience in the crypto sector. The platform, that is now foraying into the NFT sector, has also established itself among the top crypto exchanges in the world.

It also became the first entity to receive a Bitcoin-backed loan from Goldman Sachs recently.