The Scoop #14: The Crypto Bust

Crisis at Coinbase and across crypto exchanges. Why are many exchanges making layoffs, and are there any takeaways for other startups?

The Scoop is a bonus series, covering patterns and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at high-growth startups. Have scoop to share? Send me a message!

• Agile rollout at Twitter. One of Twitter’s organizations is rolling out Agile (with a capital A). This rollout is causing worry and some pushback from engineering managers and software engineers. I weigh in, as I’ve seen the exact same thing play out several times – and also how it ended up working. Will it be different this time?

• Crisis at Coinbase. In just one month, the company went from reassuring potential candidates that they were fully prepared for a volatile market to full capitulation. Following all offers being rescinded, the company laid off almost as many people as they hired in Q2 2022.

• The Crypto bust. It’s not just Coinbase. The “crypto winter” is hitting crypto startups heavily. 

• Layoffs roundup. Layoffs are not slowing down. The pattern of which companies are the ones letting people go, is becoming more clear.

• A strategy to attract more candidates. Not surprisingly and a little ironically, it’s related to stating your company is not at risk of making layoffs.