Coinbase hemorrhages employees following controversial culture stance

After adjustments to company policies, popular U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase has seen backlash from employees who disagreed with the changes. 

Coinbase received national attention for a recent change to its policies, which required employees to avoid political and social distractions, and instead focus on its core mission of building an open financial system for the world. Multiple commentators, including Jack Dorsey of Twitter, found the new direction to be at odds with the cryptocurrency industry’s values.

“We subsequently decided to make a generous exit package available to any employee who didn’t feel they could be on board with this direction,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post on Oct. 8. The CEO delivered his staff an email , which he pasted into the blog post explanation. 

Armstrong’s email stated that 60 of the exchange’s staffers intend to depart from the company, equating to approximately 5% of the firm’s workforce. Additional workers have expressed potential, yet undecided, interest in leaving as well. 

The CEO advised that despite concerns over the cultural shift disproportionately affecting the company’s “under-represented minority population”, people from such groups have not taken the severance package in disproportionate numbers.

In his clarifications to staff, Armstrong noted that employees should not have to pretend that politics don’t exist, and that crypto is an inherently political industry. However, he declared that “Yes, we are ok being political about this one particular area because it relates to our mission.”

In explaining how to know what is political, Armstrong declared that “We recognize it’s a blurry line, and ask that employees use good judgement. Our goal is not to look for violations, but rather to support employees in adapting to these clarified expectations.”

UPDATE Oct. 8, 18:12 UTC: This article has been updated with additional details.