How did they have 1000 people in the first place?
Managers do.
If I am a Director of Engineering with 5 reports and you are a Director of Engineering with 10 reports then you are going for the VP of Eng role on next promotion.
Like it or hate it that's why every company bloats up over time.
Company pays salaries.
And you enlarge your status.
For example my blog/website operates theoretically in all countries on the world ...still it's only me needed. I think you get the point.
I think a measure like active users is more related to the size than number of countries and coins/tokens ...
But it is true I focused a too much on the platform itself etc. They have a lot stuff going on around it for legal, kyc, regulations, Marketing etc ... The operation of the platform itself is probably not the biggest part of their business anymore.
But coinbase for example, does it with less than 5000 ... But probably not so easy to compare