As new impediments develop in the cryptocurrency industry and the economy, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told that the company is carefully examining potential cost-cutting opportunities. Armstrong said that the current economic situation is comparable to previous obstacles experienced by the company. Following the November elections, the CEO expects greater clarity on SEC regulations.

The value of Coinbase’s shares has plummeted by more than 70 percent since the beginning of this year. This is because the company has been experiencing a “crypto winter” related to the price decrease of bitcoin and Ethereum. Although Coinbase is experiencing inflationary pressures and the prospect of a recession, CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong said that the current macro environment is identical to the company’s history. Armstrong described the present decline as nothing extraordinary. Since Armstrong established Coinbase 10 years ago, the company has seen four bear markets.

Brian said, “Within Coinbase, there is a saying that I like to repeat often: ‘It’s never as good as it looks, and it’s never as bad as it seems.'” Because I believe it’s crucial to have an open mind, I often repeat this phrase. Coinbase laid off 18% of its workforce in June. Brian Armstrong, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, has previously characterized the decrease in personnel as a reaction to the expected advent of a recession and the need to manage the company’s burn rate better and increase efficiency.

Armstrong said that the personnel cutbacks would be an isolated incident but that “anything may happen” in the future. He said, “I can’t tell you what the world will be like in a year,” but was unable to do so. Armstrong said that Coinbase aggressively seeks methods to reduce marketing, external suppliers, and Amazon Web Services-related expenditures.

Also read: How Bigtime Bitcoin Investors Move Prices In Market.

Although Armstrong said that there would continue to be a “variety of Coinbase ads,” this may indicate that in the future, Coinbase would no longer air commercials during the Super Bowl. He also noted that the organization is attempting to convert as much of its fixed expenditures as is physically practicable into variable costs. The bear argument has centered on the possibility of pressure on Coinbase’s trading fees, which accounted for more than 80 percent of the company’s revenue in the second quarter. Jim Chanos, a prominent short seller, is among those betting against Coinbase, claiming that the business overearns on fees and that “fee compression” would occur as “competition among exchanges increases.”

Armstrong expected that commissions and costs would decrease over time, similar to what has occurred in the brokerage industry. Coinbase, on the other hand, is not seeing any price sensitivity at the moment. Coinbase has also been investigated by the SEC in recent months. A former Coinbase product manager was charged with fraud by a regulatory authority. An inquiry was launched to examine whether or not the website illegally allowed users to trade unregistered digital assets.

It is debatable how to classify bitcoin tokens, and Armstrong hopes the company will gain regulatory clarity after the midterm elections. If cryptocurrencies were to be classified as commodities, like other kinds of currency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would regulate them. Nonetheless, the sale of speculative tokens is how many bitcoin firms get their initial funding. According to Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “many of these underlying tokens exhibit the characteristics of securities,” indicating that they should be regulated as securities to protect investors.

Armstrong has voiced his excitement about joining the SEC. Armstrong argues that the remote-first structure has been advantageous for the company’s recruiting efforts but has hindered parts of the organization’s learning and development, creativity, and trust. As a result, he said that the organization aims to get employees together in person with at least part of their co-workers every three months.

According to its mission statement, Coinbase does not participate in social or political campaigning and seeks to create a “refuge from discord.” A blog post by Armstrong in 2020 indicating that political talks discussing candidates are prohibited attracted significant attention from CEOs in and outside Silicon Valley. In his paper, Armstrong said that candidate-related political discussions are not permitted. Armstrong said he was “surprised” by the number of prominent leaders talking with him about it. However, he feels that the company’s mission statement has become nearly too well-known.