Coinbase Rescinds Job Offers To Workers Who Quit Major Banks To Work There

Employees who left their jobs at investment banks like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, in order to pursue employment with Coinbase, are finding out bad news: their job offers have been rescinded. 

Workers formerly of “at least 10 of the biggest financial firms on Wall Street” are encountering the bad news, as Coinbase announced it was freezing hiring for the “foreseeable future” earlier this week.

Employees had left firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, BlackRock Inc., Wells Fargo & Co.and Citigroup Inc., according to a Bloomberg writeup on the hiring SNAFU this week.

Coinbase was also poaching software engineers from banks like Credit Suisse and Capital One, the report says. 

A Coinbase blog post from this week read: “After assessing our business priorities, current headcount, and open roles, we have decided to pause hiring for as long as this macro environment requires.”

It continued: “The extended hiring pause will include backfills, except for roles that are necessary to meet the high standards we set for security and compliance, or to support other mission-critical work. We will always prioritize the safety and security of our customers’ funds.”

The company also said: “We will also rescind a number of outstanding offers for people who have not started yet. This is not a decision we make lightly, but is necessary to ensure we are only growing in the highest-priority areas.”

“Limited exceptions apply and will be managed by the same criteria as backfills, all incoming hires will be advised of their updated offer status today by email,” the company said. 

We have been documenting for months how Wall Street firms are in a mad dash to retain and recruit talent – so maybe if the unemployed go crawling back and ask nicely, they can have their old jobs back…