With bitcoin value crashing in recent weeks, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is cancelling plans to scale up.
Coinbase, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has paused development plans for the year due to a significant drop in the bitcoin market.
"Given current market conditions, we believe it's smart to delay hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals," Coinbase President Emilie Choi said in an email to employees that was also posted on the company's blog.
This year, Coinbase had planned to "increase the size of the company," but those plans have been put on hold. In light of the ongoing crypto market collapse, it will instead focus on "completely integrating all recent personnel," Choi stated.
Bitcoin's value has plummeted by half in the last six months, from around $60,000 in November 2021 to around $30,000 in May 2022.
Because bitcoin is so important to the crypto economy, the value of other prominent digital coins like Ethereum has fallen as well.
Coinbase functions like a cryptocurrency stock exchange. Users can trade their currency for crypto coins, which can subsequently be resold or kept in a similar way to stocks. In the case of a bankruptcy, the business recently stated that it may have to absorb its users' cryptocurrencies; it presently holds around $256 billion in user assets in fiat currency and cryptocurrency.
In such case, all Coinbase users could lose whatever funds they have on the platform. Following the news, cryptocurrency aficionados urged Coinbase users to move their funds elsewhere.
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