Despite Rough 2022 for Crypto and Coinbase, Executives Made Millions

Coinbase executives managed to seek shelter during crypto winter. 

Crypto lost a whopping $1.6 trillion off of its total market cap in 2022, but that didn’t stop Coinbase executives from raking in cash. 

According to an SEC filing – with the exception of chief financial officer Alesia Haas – Coinbase’s executives walked away with more money in their pockets in 2022 than the year before.

CEO Brian Armstrong made a total of $7.4 million last year, though $6.3 million of that total figure went to personal security costs.

Emilie Choi, chief operating officer and president, made $23.4 million in total compensation. 

Haas made $11.9 million, down from the $16.2 million she made in 2021. 

Surojit Chatterjee, former chief product officer, walked away with $20.7 million. 

Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal made $7.4 million. 

2022 was a rough year for all of crypto, but Coinbase lost $2.6 billion last year, according to the crypto firm’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings report. 

“To state the obvious, 2022 was a challenging year for the crypto market and our transaction revenues,” Coinbase said in its report. 

The stock has also taken a hit, down to $60 a share from a 52-week high of $116. 

In early January of this year, Coinbase announced that it was cutting 950 jobs – or 20% – of its workforce. In June of 2022, Coinbase laid off 18% of its workforce. 

The company wasn’t the only crypto firm to be exposed to frostbite through a chilly crypto winter. Following a strong year in 2021, the crypto sector was hit by a number of events from the depegging of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra, to the bankruptcies of three crypto lenders – BlockFi, Voyager and Celsius – and the fall of FTX. 

However, as Blockworks has previously reported, while pain is still being felt across cryptocurrencies, 20% of the 160 analyzed have seen their market values grow. 

In early May, Coinbase also posted its first-quarter earnings, which still saw a net loss for the quarter, but did note that the loss of $79 million was smaller than 2022’s net losses. 

“This quarter represented a turning point in our drive towards building a company that is more efficient and financially disciplined,” Coinbase said in a shareholder letter.

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