Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said AI will be a major part of the company’s future
Coinbase is leaning heavily into artificial intelligence to reshape how it develops and maintains its platform. CEO Brian Armstrong revealed this week that more than 40% of the company’s code is now written with the help of AI tools, and he expects that figure to climb to 50% within the next month.
Armstrong stressed that the AI-produced code still requires review and oversight but noted that the company aims to use AI “as much as we possibly can” while remaining responsible. A chart he shared showed that the percentage of AI-generated code at Coinbase has more than doubled since April, reflecting the speed of adoption across the company’s engineering teams.
This move fits into a broader strategy Armstrong outlined last month, where Coinbase said it wants to build an “AI-native” workforce. Instead of cutting back on staff, the company is pushing its 4,200 employees to embrace AI as part of their daily work. Armstrong has even said he dismissed engineers who refused to adopt AI tools without a strong explanation, underscoring how central the technology has become to operations.
Engineers at Coinbase are now using platforms like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor to write, refactor, and upgrade codebases that previously took months to complete. Armstrong highlighted examples of single developers finishing complex projects in just days with AI’s assistance.
Despite its reliance on automation, Coinbase is still expanding its engineering staff. Nearly half of the company’s current 350 open roles are technical, with more than 90 of them focused on back-end engineering jobs that reference AI directly.
Industry analysts note that while crypto hiring overall has slowed since 2022, AI is drawing in both talent and investment. Armstrong’s approach suggests Coinbase is positioning itself at the intersection of both sectors, betting that the combination of human expertise and AI-powered efficiency will keep it competitive in a fast-moving market.
