What I mean is that later employees—especially the ones who joined during the 2021–2022 hype when Brex was valued at that crazy $12.3 billion peak—got their RSU grants priced at those very high levels. That meant their equity was basically "underwater" once valuations crashed post-2022; the shares they were promised wouldn’t pay out much (or anything meaningful) unless the company somehow got back to those crazy heights.

To keep people from jumping ship and to make things feel fairer, IIRC in 2024 Brex did some RSU "top-ups" - basically, they handed out extra shares at the much lower current valuation to compensate for the drop and give those folks a better shot at actually making some real money or "breaking even".