Coinbase has appointed Rob Witoff as Chief Technology Officer on July 28, bringing an early company engineer back into the role as the exchange expands AI-assisted product development. Witoff first joined Coinbase in 2014 and worked there until 2017, leading security and infrastructure and becoming chief architect before helping build some of the exchange's earliest systems. He later founded institutional crypto custody company Unit 410, which Coinbase acquired. CEO Brian Armstrong announced the appointment on X and credited Witoff with helping turn Coinbase into "one of the most AI-enabled companies in the world." Witoff returned to Coinbase in December 2024 as head of platform and a member of the executive team, with his latest goal being to make Coinbase "the best place in the world to build."
The CTO appointment follows significant changes to Coinbase's senior leadership structure as part of its multi-asset expansion strategy. Chief People Officer Lawrence Brock will leave his position on August 17 and remain with the company through September 1 to transfer his duties. The exchange expects to appoint Dominique Baillet as Brock's successor, placing her in charge of hiring, retention and workplace operations during this period of product expansion. Brock will continue providing advisory services from September 2 through November 30 under an agreement signed on July 23, receiving compensation equal to three months of his current base salary, which works out to $730,000 annually. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal notified Coinbase on July 8 that he would leave his post on July 31, with Molly Abraham expected to become general counsel and corporate secretary, while Grewal will serve as an adviser through October.
The CTO appointment follows Coinbase's comprehensive AI overhaul announced in May, which included plans to reduce the workforce by approximately 14% (700 roles) while flattening management and building smaller teams around AI tools. Armstrong said AI allows engineers to complete work in days that previously took teams weeks, with experiments involving "one person teams" combining engineering, product and design work. Coinbase's July engineering report revealed that nearly all newly merged code had become AI-generated and human-reviewed, with the share rising from 5.7% in the first quarter of 2025 to roughly 100% by mid-2026, while maintaining human review and compliance controls. The company plans quarterly reviews of its AI-focused engineering interview process and 45-day and 90-day assessments for new hires.
These leadership changes follow Coinbase's announcement to eliminate approximately 700 positions, equal to 14% of its workforce, reducing headcount from roughly 5,000 to 4,300 employees. As reported by Business Insider, CEO Brian Armstrong linked the May decision to volatile crypto markets and productivity gains from artificial intelligence, while Coinbase estimated restructuring costs of $50 million to $60 million. The cuts cost almost all of that amount as cash for severance, with most of the bill landing in the second-quarter accounts. Armstrong told employees that Coinbase needed smaller and more efficient teams, with plans to reduce management layers and test team structures where fewer workers handle tasks previously requiring several specialized roles.
At the Base network level, Jesse Pollak has stepped back from leading the consumer app and handed control to Jordan Fish, widely known as Cobie. According to CoinDesk, Pollak acknowledged that his focus on social applications and creator coins had failed to produce the adoption he expected. Pollak will instead focus on developing Base as a blockchain for global finance, with trading, payments and tokenization taking priority, while Coinbase maintains control of the Base app under its control. This marks Pollak's second major restructuring effort, as he had previously frozen hiring and rescinded offers in June 2022 before Coinbase cut 18% of staff.
