VP of Engineering Tim Wagner Becomes Latest Exec to Leave Coinbase

Coinbase executive Tim Wagner is leaving the crypto exchange after slightly over a year on the job. Other high-ranking engineering staffers are leaving too, CoinDesk has learned.

Wagner, Coinbase’s vice president of engineering, will be departing in the next two weeks, a Coinbase spokesperson confirmed. The departure will leave a vacancy on the company’s leadership team.

Previously, Wagner served more than six years at Amazon Web Services, making him one of the most senior alums of big tech to join the cryptocurrency industry. Wagner joined shortly after Coinbase acquired Earn.com and made Balaji Srinivasan its chief technology officer.

Wagner is another example of a senior member of the team departing the company in recent months. In May, Coinbase lost both CTO Srinivasan and COO Asiff Hirji. A recent report by The Information exposed tensions between the two men that caused turmoil in the company's executive ranks.

CoinDesk was also able to confirm three other notable departures at the company outside of the leadership team.

Wagner’s departure follows that of Namrata Ganatra, Coinbase’s now-former senior director of engineering. Ganatra announced yesterday that she’d be joining Lambda School as the education startup’s new CTO.

Coinbase veteran and current engineering director Varun Srinivasan is also leaving, the company confirmed to CoinDesk. After nearly four and a half years at Coinbase, Srinivasan’s departure is in the works but has yet to be finalized.

Facebook alum and Coinbase’s former director of design, Connie Yang, left the company some months ago. She did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

Coinbase employs roughly 700 people across multiple offices.

Nick Tomaino, an early Coinbase employee who now runs investment firm 1confirmation, says turnover at San Francisco’s crypto unicorn is no big deal.

"Coinbase is a utility for the industry and its success as a company is solely dependent on the success of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole," Tomaino wrote in a message to CoinDesk. "A few exec departures don't matter much in the grand scheme of things."

Tim Wagner (right) with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (photo via Coinbase)