Coinbase has named Rob Witoff its new chief technology officer, stepping up a familiar face as the crypto exchange sharpens its focus on AI-driven products. Witoff, an early Coinbase engineer, returns to a top role less than two years after rejoining the company as head of platform.
Witoff’s history with Coinbase dates back to 2014, where he played a key role in designing foundational security and infrastructure systems before leaving in 2017. After launching an institutional crypto custody business that Coinbase later acquired, he came back in December 2024 to help revamp the platform and guide technology strategy.
CEO Brian Armstrong announced the appointment on X, highlighting Witoff’s impact in pushing Coinbase to become “one of the most AI-enabled companies in the world.” This shift aligns with a wider restructuring the exchange undertook in May, cutting approximately 14% of its workforce or around 700 employees. Those changes aimed to flatten management layers and reorganize teams around AI-assistant workflows.
Witoff recalls the early days when Coinbase supported just a single cryptocurrency with a small engineering team running one codebase. Now he’s charged with scaling that legacy into a future-focused environment, making Coinbase “the best place in the world to build,” as he put it.
