Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has confronted a barrage of ridicule after posting on X that 40% of code written for his crypto change is “AI-generated,” and he needs this to rise to greater than half by subsequent month.
The considerably arbitrary metric has drawn criticism and derision from throughout an trade all-too-familiar with the dangers that swiftly put collectively code can convey.
~40% of day by day code written at Coinbase is AI-generated. I need to get it to >50% by October.
Clearly it must be reviewed and understood, and never all areas of the enterprise can use AI-generated code. However we needs to be utilizing it responsibly as a lot as we presumably can. pic.twitter.com/Nmnsdxgosp
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 3, 2025
Armstrong’s recognition that AI-generated code needs to be “reviewed and understood, and not all areas of the business can use [it]” appeared inadequate to calm suspicions that one of many world’s largest crypto exchanges was being held collectively by “vibe-coding.”
Many responses targeted on the devastating leak of delicate know-your-customer (KYC) knowledge.
One X consumer requested if “KYC information and personal info” was “vibe coded too” earlier than being leaked, whereas one other posted a screenshot of what seems to be an SMS phishing message focused at Coinbase clients, asking Armstrong “Is this why I get 10 of these a day now?”
The information breach, which occurred late final yr, uncovered nearly 70,000 customers and drew heavy criticism from throughout the crypto neighborhood. It led to tens of millions of {dollars} value of losses through faux customer support reps, together with $4 million by a single scammer and part-time “Furry.”
Given the above, the tone-deaf nature of Armstrong’s newest announcement didn’t go unnoticed.
If I used to be the CEO of a crypto change which leaked all of your personally data I might merely not proudly announce that half my shit is vibecoded
— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) September 4, 2025
Different responses targeted on the safety implications of such a big change and custodian being written largely by AI. Pseudonymous crypto safety skilled samczsun merely mentioned, “this explains a lot.”
Crypto commentator Adam Cochran prompt that the idea wasn’t what you “want to hear from a place that stores financial assets,” whereas the founding father of decentralized change Dango referred to as the initiative “a giant red flag for any security sensitive business.”
One other consumer put it extra bluntly.
But extra skepticism got here from these involved by the inefficiencies that AI-generated code is more likely to produce, with one poster saying they “would hate to try and debug that mess.”
An OffChain Labs engineer requested, “Why would your goal be to hit any metric like this?” calling it “bizarrely arbitrary and ridiculously easy to game.”
He argues that the amount of code “should be minimized if anything,” and “quality and maintainability is what matters.”
One other response queried whether or not Coinbase could be utilizing the “cost savings from newfound efficiencies to lower your egregiously high fees on retail traders and re-shore your customer support.”
Maybe such financial savings may need already been spent on Armstrong’s tequila-protection finances.
AI-generated or AI-augmented?
Under his submit Armstrong linked to Coinbase’s Instruments for Developer Productiveness at Coinbase weblog submit, printed final month.
The submit describes how AI instruments like Cursor, Copilot, and Claude Code are being “incorporated to help our developers improve the coding journey while maintaining the highest bar for customer safety and quality.”
Coinbase seems eager to clarify that it acknowledges that giant language fashions “don’t produce flawless code, and we have seen that a growing use of AI in development increases bugs.”
The submit continues, “AI is still just a tool for us, and tools don’t ship bugs, humans do.”
