Coinbase, Block and Crypto.com have all cited AI to justify recent cuts, though Scale AI’s Jason Droege suspects companies are using the technology as cover. Coinbase became the latest crypto company to cut its workforce on Tuesday, as a wave of layoffs sweeps through an industry navigating a down market and the pressure to embrace AI. CEO Brian Armstrong said the company is using AI to flatten its organizational structure, with managers expected to act more like "player-coaches." "AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we're reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs," Armstrong said in an email to employees, also shared on X on Tuesday. Read more
ECB President Christine Lagarde said Europe should build tokenized settlement infrastructure anchored by central bank money rather than rely on private stablecoins. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said stablecoins are not an efficient way to strengthen the euro’s international role, pushing back against calls for Europe to respond to US dollar-backed stablecoins with euro-denominated tokens. Speaking Friday at the Banco de España LatAm Economic Forum in Roda de Bará, Spain, Lagarde made several comments on the role of stablecoins in the European economy. “It is no longer about whether stablecoins should exist, but whether jurisdictions can afford to be without them,” she said, arguing that the case for promoting euro stablecoins becomes less clear once their two core functions are separated. “The benefits attributed to them [stablecoins] rest on two distinct functions — a monetary function and a technological function — that are systematically conflated in the current debate,” Lagarde ...