Coinbase, one of the world's largest crypto exchange platforms, is making major layoffs. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said the company will cut operating expenses by 25% and let go of 950 employees.

In a blog post (opens in new tab) from the company's email (discovered by Verge (opens in new tab)), Armstrong said that the crypto market is "trending downwards along with the broader macroeconomy" and that "influence from unscrupulous actors in the industry" is now "operational efficiency" at the expense of jobs He stated that this led to Coinbase's decision to increase current "operational efficiencies" at the expense of jobs.

One of the "unscrupulous actors" Armstrong is Sam Bankman Fried, founder of the now collapsed FTX (open in new tab), who was indicted for fraud. (There were many other crypto-related crooks (open in new tab) and NFT scammers (open in new tab) in 2022.)

"The collapse of FTX and the resulting contagion created a black eye on the industry," Armstrong told CNBC (opens in new tab), "and there will be increased scrutiny to make sure the various companies in this space are playing by the rules."

U.S. employees affected by the layoffs will receive a minimum of 14 weeks of severance pay and an additional two weeks for every year spent at the company. Armstrong also said Coinbase would abandon projects that have a "low probability of success." Details of the layoffs can be found in the 8-K filing with the SEC (opens in new tab).

According to Armstrong, these "dark times will also weed out the bad companies" and "better times" lie ahead.

"Progress doesn't always happen in a straight line; sometimes it feels like two steps forward and one step back," he writes.

All affected staff were informed by email; in June, Coinbase laid off 1,100 members just four months after the infamous Super Bowl ad. (Open in new tab) At the time, Armstrong cited overexpansion and the economic downturn as causes.