Coinbase Employees Sideline Themselves From Company’s Apolitical Mission

According to some Coinbase employees, the plan to offer a clean exit for mission-dissenting staffers has been in the company’s plan for six months. Armstrong began to plan for the company’s new mission after several Coinbase engineers closed their laptops one day after Armstrong refused to support “black lives matter” externally amid social unrest over police killings of unarmed black men and women.

Another source familiar with the company’s inner working revealed that the policy was introduced to prevent polarizing political conversations happening in all-company Slack channels and other places.

Armstrong's Public Blog-Post Controversy

The controversy over the open blog posts could have avoided if he had communicated his ideas only internally in the company, according to an employee.

He said, “I think that if he was trying primarily to communicate this to employees and had consulted and listened to really anyone who might be sensitive to the concept of selling this to his employees, this could have blown over and turned into something banal and corporate."

Another employee believed the timing of the policy’s release was bad. It came at the end of the third quarter, amid rumors of the firm going public, and after a Louisville grand jury failed to charge police officers for murder in the controversial killing of Breonna Taylor.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted his disapproval with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong over the plan to move away from societal issues.

Company’s Stand Against the Strong Political Beliefs

Multiple employees have said that the company has distanced itself from employees by moving questions in all-hands meetings to messaging platform Slido after the summer walkout. 

Employees are distancing themselves from the extreme implications that might come with being an apolitical company and reaffirmed the commitment to diversity and employee support.

It is unclear what punishments employees might face if they held strong political beliefs and oppose the new decision. Moreover, leadership has made it clear that the rules around non-work discussions are free as long as they do not connect directly to politics.