Coinbase staff on $475k seem to be earning more cash, less stock
In the last two quarters, crypto giant Coinbase put pedal to metal on its expansion plans. Despite there being a lot of new faces at the fintech, average compensation was way up.
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Coinbase's Q4 shareholder letter last week said the crypto firm ended 2024 with 3,772 employees. Headcount was up 100 on the previous quarter, in which it hired 186 people. Year-on-year, headcount was up by 356
In the firm's 10-K filing, 'personnel-related' expenses, which include both cash and stock-based compensation, averaged $476.7k for those employees, up from $424k in 2023. Despite this, the shareholder letter showed that stock-based compensation expenses per employee fell from $253k to $242k. This implies that cash-based compensation now makes up a much larger proportion of expected pay at Coinbase. The 10-K filing also stated that personnel expenses "increased $42.6 million due to higher average headcount" in technology, although it is not clear how many people joined that function.
Coinbase is still hiring in the hundreds. Its shareholder letter says the firm "expect[s] to grow headcount at a slightly higher rate than Q4." Senior hires this year include Matt Smith from Monzo, who will be Coinbase's 'head of operations and expansion, UK'. Ben Shanken, a VP of growth who joined from Discord two weeks ago, said his team would be building out "aggressively."
It's not just headcount that's been growing at Coinbase either. The fintech ended 2024 with a stock price of $265.71, up over 50% from the start of the year. Its current stock price is over $274.
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