Adam Kirk

This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase: Team, Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the future. Why now Two forces are converging at the same time. We need to be front footed to respond to both. First, the market. Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we've managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, we’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth. Second, AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day. All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core. What this means To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it. What does this mean in practice? - Fewer layers, faster decisions: We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles. - No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams. - AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role. In short: AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs. To those who are affected I know there are real people behind these decisions — talented colleagues who have poured themselves into this company and our mission. To those of you who will be leaving: thank you. You’ve helped build Coinbase into what it is today, and I am sincerely grateful for everything you've done. All impacted team members will receive an email to their personal account in the next hour with more information, and an invitation to meet with an HRBP and a senior leader in your organization. Coinbase system access has been removed today. I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information. To those affected, we will be providing a comprehensive package to support you through this transition. US employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA. Employees on a work visa will get extra transition support. Those outside of the US will receive similar support, based on local factors and subject to any consultation requirements. Coinbase prides itself on talent density. Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters. How we move forward To the team that is staying, I know this is a difficult day. We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you've been in the trenches with. But here’s what I want you to know as we move forward together: Over the past 13 years, we have weathered four crypto winters, gone public, and built the most trusted platform in our industry. We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission. This time will be no different – nothing has changed about the long term outlook of our company or industry. And most importantly, our mission has never been more important for the world. Increasing economic freedom requires a new financial system, and we’re building it. The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission. Brian

3 day backpacking trip into coyote gulch. Insanely beautiful place

What opinion do you have about parenting young children that would have you like this?

Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?

The fastest way to undermine a child's thinking is to praise them for the right answer. When you say Good job, you are training your child to think about your approval. You are training them to perform for you. A Socratic parent asks: Why do you think that? They do not announce whether the answer is correct. They ask follow-up questions. They present evidence that contradicts the claim. They create the conditions for the child to discover the weakness in their own reasoning. Getting a child to pause and think is the entire victory. In a conventional classroom, Good job means compliance with the teacher's version of knowledge. In a Socratic environment, independent judgment is the goal.

Jack Dorsey just published something that should be required reading for every founder. The premise: the org chart needs to be replaced entirely. And the argument starts 2,000 years ago. For thousands of years, every organization on earth has run on the same logic the Roman Army invented. Small teams report to a leader → Leaders report to managers → Managers report to executives. The whole structure exists for one reason: to route information up and down the chain. That's it. The whole system exists to solve a bandwidth problem. Jack's argument is simple: AI solves it better. Block built what they call a "world model" - a continuously updated picture of everything happening across the company. Every decision. Every customer. Every transaction. Every bottleneck. In real time. No status update needed. No weekly sync. No manager to translate what's happening on the ground into language the executive can understand. When the world model carries the information, you don't need the layers. So they eliminated them. Block now runs on three roles: Individual contributors who build. DRIs who own specific outcomes for a fixed period. Player-coaches who develop people while still doing the work themselves. No middle layer. The system handles coordination. The humans handle the work. I've coached thousands of founders. The number one problem is always the same: information latency. By the time a problem surfaces from your front line to leadership, it's already compounded. By the time a decision travels back down, the damage is done. That lag costs you deals, people, and momentum. And most founders accept it as the price of scale. Block is trying to prove you don't have to anymore. I think they're right. Because the hierarchy was never the point - it was just the best tool we had. The moment something better exists, the layers eventually collapse. This is either the biggest structural shift since the 1850s - or it breaks at scale like everything else before it. Either way - every founder should be asking the same question: how much of your org exists just to route information? If the answer is "most of it" - that's your problem. And your opportunity. -DM