Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), the largest digital asset marketplace in the US, has announced it will slow its hiring process due to the “current market downtown.”
The news should come as no surprise for Coinbase watchers as the crypto focused firm experienced hyperbolic growth that inevitably had to pause.
In a blog post, a Coinbase representative stated:
“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.
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. 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 we are aiming to manage to.
Importantly, now is the time to ensure we are fully integrating all recent hires — so we can ensure that they are successful at Coinbase. This slow down will also force us to be more rigorous in our prioritization.”
Coinbase emphasized that its balance sheet remains solid adding that the “best is yet to come.”
Prior to the announcement of the hiring pause, Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong commented on the roiling crypto market:
“Volatility is inevitable. We can’t control it, but we do plan for it. Through the ups and downs of crypto over the last 10 years, Coinbase has focused on building. Through the highs we get to focus on scaling and many new people get introduced to crypto. Through the lows we get to focus on innovation and paying off tech debt.
I don’t know how long this down-cycle will last, or if we are at the bottom. I just know that we will make it through to the other side, and we come out stronger than ever if we focus on what matters: building.”
If anything, crypto is known for extreme volatility. Calls for ultimate demise are soon met with a rapid rise in price. Once touted as a non-correlated asset regarding traditional markets, rising interest rates and global economic concerns have compelled investors to rush for the exit in both traditional and digital asset markets. Clearly, this will not last forever – it is simply a question as to how long.
Shares in Coinbase have fallen hard from their all-time high. Q1 earnings failed to inspire investors as the company missed analyst estimates. Shares are currently trading around $70 well above their 52-week low of around $41/share but well below the beginning of 2022 when Coinbase traded at over $250/share.