Artificial intelligence now helps write more than 95% of Coinbase\u2019s code, offering new insight into the crypto exchange\u2019s AI strategy following its decision to cut 14% of its workforce earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coinbase cut 700 staff in May. In an email<\/span><\/a> to employees, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has \u201cdramatically\u201d changed the pace of work<\/a> and there was a need<\/a> to \u201creturn to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEffectively, 100% of our employees are using AI on a daily basis here,\u201d Coinbase\u2019s head of platform, Rob Witoff, told Cointelegraph. \u201cAnd close to 100% of our code, probably somewhere between 95% and 100%, is written by or with LLMs today.\u201d<\/p>\n The figure is more than double Coinbase\u2019s February estimate, when the company said<\/span><\/a> 40% of its code was written with AI, reflecting the accelerating pace of AI adoption across tech and crypto companies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Rob Witoff talks about Coinbase\u2019s adoption of AI. Source: Cointelegraph<\/em><\/p>\n Witoff, however, said there is a \u201cwide spectrum\u201d in how it is used and the degree to which it is relied on. While writing core cryptography mainly relies on human input, prototyping is fully automated and core systems sit somewhere in the middle, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, when we\u2019re writing core cryptography, we have industry-leading cryptographers that are meticulously researching and reviewing one line at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using AI quite a bit to test and make sure the code we\u2019ve written is working the way it should, there\u2019s no vulnerabilities, we\u2019re verifying the math, but that\u2019s a much more manual part than where we\u2019re building internal prototypes, which is now effectively a 100% automated.\u201d<\/p>\n The shift has allowed Coinbase to reorganize around smaller, more senior teams, Witoff said, with two or three employees now capable of handling work that previously required 10 or more people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of junior development roles that were impacted,\u201d he said of the May layoffs, though the cuts extended across the company, including marketing, legal, customer support and compliance roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor those smaller teams to work, for people to have the taste, the judgment, I think a lot about people having the battle scars so they know how to point agents in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Witoff said that most Coinbase engineers now have five to 10 AI agents operating at any given time, with AI agents collectively performing the coding work of about 1,200 employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n By 2030, Coinbase could see AI agents doing the equivalent work of 100,000 employees, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Coinbase said its AI spend has remained \u201cflat\u201d despite growing token use. Source: <\/em>Brian Armstrong<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Robinhood says its AI agent feature will \u2018soon\u2019 be assisting crypto traders<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Coinbase was part of a wave of companies to lay off staff this year amid a rise in enterprise AI. In March, crypto exchange Crypto.com cut 12% of its staff<\/span><\/a>, impacting roles \u201cthat do not adapt in our new world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, Block CEO Jack Dorsey said he was cutting 40% of Block\u2019s workforce<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing that the intelligence tools we\u2019re 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,\u201d Dorsey said<\/span><\/a> on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other crypto companies that cited AI-related efficiencies in this year\u2019s layoffs included Kraken<\/span><\/a>, Gemini, Messari<\/span><\/a> and Dune<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Magazine: <\/strong><\/em>Robinhood L2 sparks ETH optimism, Saylor \u2018muddies waters.\u2019 Hodler\u2019s Digest, July 5-12, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Artificial intelligence now helps write more than 95% of Coinbase\u2019s code, offering new insight into the crypto exchange\u2019s AI strategy following its decision to cut 14% of its workforce earlier this year.\u00a0 Coinbase cut 700 staff in May. In an email to employees, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has \u201cdramatically\u201d changed the pace of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11990],"tags":[3624,26092,2854,26093,16408],"class_list":["post-36400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-plug","tag-code","tag-coinbases","tag-rob","tag-witoff","tag-written"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/hi-what-is-a-coinbase-transaction-ai-1.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"CRYPTO PLUG<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Artificial intelligence now helps write more than 95% of Coinbase\u2019s code, offering new insight into the crypto exchange\u2019s AI strategy following its decision to cut 14% of its workforce earlier this year.\u00a0 Coinbase cut 700 staff in May. In an email to employees, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI has \u201cdramatically\u201d changed the pace of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36402,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36400\/revisions\/36402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Smaller teams with \u201ctastemakers\u201d<\/h2>\n