/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f7f5e9a8a8e6c495a7fe911/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=3600&cropY1=182&cropY2=2208&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1 "60 Employees Leave Coinbase Over CEO’s Pledge To Be Apolitical")
Topline
More than 60 Coinbase employees have taken an exit package after CEO Brian Armstrong said in a controversial blog post last month that the company would not participate in social activism.
Coinbase Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong attends Consensus 2019 at the Hilton Midtown on May 15, … [+]
Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
Key Facts
The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange offered all employees an exit package if they didn’t agree with the company’s pledge to not take a stand on issues outside its business goals.
60 employees or 5% of Coinbase’s workforce, have taken the deal, Armstrong said Thursday, and a number of conversations are still ongoing, meaning the final number could be higher.
Armstrong said workers from under-represented groups did not take the exit package in numbers disproportionate to the overall population.
The discussion around Coinbase’s politics started internally this summer when the company didn’t release a statement supporting Black Lives Matter, causing a virtual walkout among employees, Wired reported.
Key Background
Armstrong’s controversial blog post last month prompted widespread backlash and debate over the role of politics at Silicon Valley companies. Armstrong argued that being political creates internal division and distracts from business. Yet many critics noted the irony of a cryptocurrency company, whose mission is inherently political, balking at challenging the status quo. Both Google and Facebook, too, have recently taken steps to further moderate internal debate on hot-button political issues.
Tangent
A recent poll found that 68% of Americans want CEOs to take a stand on social issues, with two-thirds of that group saying that leaders should do so on issues that don’t directly impact their business.
/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f7f5e9a8a8e6c495a7fe911/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=3600&cropY1=182&cropY2=2208&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1&description=60+Employees+Leave+Coinbase+Over+CEO%E2%80%99s+Pledge+To+Be+Apolitical){kind=link}