Coinbase in Turmoil: Why Employees Walked Out

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, discusses a controversial blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about how the company intends to take an apolitical stance, the pushback it received afterward, and the company’s offer of generous exit packages for employees who disagree:

why CEO Brian Armstrong wrote the blog post stating it would be taking an apolitical stance during these socially and politically tumultuous times
why the company then offered a generous exit package to employees who disagreed with it
which social and political issues caused the divisions at Coinbase
how a question about Black Lives Matter at a a company all-hands back in June began the series of events that resulted in this blog post
why employees walked out earlier this summer
why Armstrong did tweet about the Black Lives Matter movement
how the stance Armstrong took in the blog post is not a surprise to those who know his personality
why the reactions to the blog post were so wide-ranging
how this affects Coinbase’s place in the wider world of investment, which has seen a greater interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing
why Coinbase’s plans to go public in the next year or so might have affected Armstrong’s decision to take the apolitical stance
what happened in another all-hands meeting on Thursday to discuss this issue
plus, we talk about the DOJ and CFTC charges against BitMEX, how Frank talked with BitMEX cofounder and CEO Arthur Hayes last night, and whether it seemed Arthur had any awareness this was coming

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Episode links:

Frank Chaparro: https://twitter.com/fintechfrank

The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com

Coinbase blog post: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804?gi=2f36a2277d05

CoinDesk on the blog post: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-has-drawn-a-line-in-the-sand-for-its-activist-employees

What sparked the walkout: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79517/a-question-about-black-lives-matter-sparked-an-employee-walkout-at-coinbase-this-summer

Erica Joy’s tweet thread on the Coinbase engineering walkout: https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/1310741842594426880

Paul Graham’s tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1310583298666696705?s=20

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s response to Brian’s blog post: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1311423420274372608?s=20

Axios article: https://www.axios.com/coinbase-controversy-b707973c-0f24-4d1e-9690-78ac5fdb94e7.html

Coinbase offers severance package https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79247/coinbase-offers-exit-package-for-employees-not-comfortable-with-its-mission

How Coinbase’s apolitical stance could affect its IPO: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79127/a-blog-post-by-coinbases-ceo-has-raised-a-fury-will-it-affect-a-potential-ipo

The Interface on Brian’s blog post: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/coinbase-bans-politics-281784