Member-only story
The CEO of Coinbase Just Fired 700 People
He Told You Exactly Why. You Should Be Terrified
Mr Tony Momoh9 min read·Just now--
“I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks.” Brian Armstrong said the quiet part out loud today. He’s not the only one.
A few hours ago, Brian Armstrong the CEO of Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges on Earth sent an email to his entire company.
The subject line was essentially: you’re fired.
700 people. 14% of the workforce. Gone. Today.
This the part that should chill every working professional reading this.
Armstrong didn’t blame the economy.
Didn’t blame crypto winter.
Didn’t hide behind “restructuring” or “realignment” or any of the usual corporate euphemisms.
He said it plainly:
“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. Many of our workflows are being automated.”
Then he added the line that should be printed on a billboard in every city in the world:
The biggest risk now is not taking action.
