As Coinbase laid off about 18% of its workforce on Tuesday, one senior executive in Singapore spoke of how the cryptocurrency exchange platform cut off access to its systems for affected employees even before they were notified they had lost their jobs.
“We lost systems before being notified, I even just reserved a place for team drinks for tomorrow..” wrote Clinton Gleave, former Coinbase Recruitment Manager for the Asia Pacific region.
Gleave wrote of his disappointment at being laid off even after building the Coinbase team in the Asia Pacific region from scratch in a now-viral LinkedIn post. “After building our entire APAC expansion from scratch, even overperforming, I've been laid off from Coinbase and have 30 days to pick up my entire life and leave Singapore after 12 years in Asia,” he said.
“I know our CEO didn't make this decision lightly, and have nothing but respect for Brian Armstrong, but that doesn't change the impact,” he said.
About 1,100 people were laid off from the world’s third-largest crypto exchange platform amid a collapse in crypto prices. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made the announcement in a blog, blaming an upcoming "crypto winter."
In the blog post, Armstrong said that Coinbase removed access for affected employees to protect the business. Axed employees were therefore informed of their termination through their personal email addresses. “If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees,” wrote the CEO, saying it was the only practical way to ensure no one made a rash decision that could harm the business, since a number of laid-off employees had access to sensitive customer information.
Clinton Gleave also spoke of his time at Coinbase in his LinkedIn post, saying that he jumped at the opportunity to “be employee number 3 for Coinbase in Singapore,” even leaving his job at Airbnb for the role.
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