Coinbase AI writes 95% of code after 700 job cuts
Coinbase is replacing junior staff with AI agents that now write almost all of its code, signaling a structural shift in tech sector employment costs.
Artificial intelligence now generates between 95% and 100% of Coinbase’s code, a massive acceleration from just 40% in February. The crypto exchange’s head of platform, Rob Witoff, disclosed the figure, offering the clearest picture yet of the company's automation strategy following its decision to cut 700 employees, or 14% of its workforce, in May.
The shift is acting as a direct force multiplier for the remaining staff. “Effectively, 100% of our employees are using AI on a daily basis here,” Witoff said. Most Coinbase engineers currently operate five to ten AI agents simultaneously. Collectively, these automated systems are performing coding work equivalent to roughly 1,200 employees.
Looking forward, Witoff projects these AI agents could perform the equivalent work of 100,000 employees by 2030. This projected scaling relies on a fundamental restructuring of how teams operate. Two or three senior employees now handle the workload that previously required ten or more people.
The transition inherently devalues entry-level labor. “There were a lot of junior development roles that were impacted,” Witoff said of the May layoffs, which also extended to marketing, legal, customer support and compliance. He noted that the new structure requires "tastemakers" with the experience and "battle scars" to effectively direct automated agents.
The automation is not applied uniformly across the exchange's technical stack. While internal prototyping is now fully automated, core systems rely on a hybrid approach. For core cryptography, the process remains heavily manual, utilizing industry-leading experts who meticulously review code line by line, though AI is still deployed to test for vulnerabilities and verify mathematical proofs.
For investors, the critical metric is cost. Despite this exponential increase in AI utilization, CEO Brian Armstrong indicated that the company's AI spending has remained “flat.” In his May email to staff, Armstrong stated that AI has “dramatically” changed the pace of work, necessitating a return to the speed and focus of a startup founding, with AI at its core.
Coinbase’s strategy mirrors a broader structural downsizing across the digital asset sector, where companies are swapping human headcount for software efficiency. Crypto.com cut 12% of its staff in March, specifically targeting roles that “do not adapt.” Block eliminated 40% of its workforce in February.
“We’re already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company,” Block CEO Jack Dorsey said. Kraken, Gemini, Messari and Dune have similarly cited AI efficiencies in recent job cuts.
