Cryptocurrency

Coinbase chief product officer Surojit Chatterjee steps down

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s chief product officer Surojit Chatterjee is stepping down from his current position, effective from November 30, 2022, said the company in its US SEC filing. This comes at a time when worldwide crypto enterprises are laying off employees and declaring bankruptcy.

Chatterjee will continue to serve as an advisor until February 3, 2023. He reportedly received a $646 million compensation package when he joined Coinbase in February 2020. He had previously worked at Google.

“In connection with Mr. Chatterjee’s resignation, Coinbase’s product, engineering and design teams are being reorganized within a product group structure under which the leaders of such groups will assume responsibility for Coinbase’s product offerings,” said the US exchange in its filings.

“After nearly 3 incredible years as CPO @coinbase, I’m taking a breather & stepping down. Thanks to the entire CB team – I’m looking forward to continuing to serve @brian_armstrong and the exec team as an advisor,” Chatterjee said in a tweet.

In his blog post, Chatterjee added, “Over the last three years we’ve greatly expanded our product portfolio and our product and engineering teams, increased assets on platform by ~7X, increased MTUs by 8X.”

“Today our users can access hundreds of assets (we list 200+ assets on our exchange and allow users to access far more through DEX-es). Our users can send and receive crypto, earn rewards on it, and even use it to pay anyone with their crypto-backed debit card.”

He added, “It has been a tough year for me personally — my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and my mother passed away unexpectedly. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t think I’ve allowed myself time to grieve either yet.”

The exchange cut its team size by 18% earlier this year. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong attributed the decision to the current recession and the likelihood of a prolonged crypto winter.