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CoinbaseCEO declared Coinbase a 'Mission Focused Company,' discouraging employee activism on social issues

CEO Brian Armstrong wrote a blog post in September 2020 declaring Coinbase a 'Mission Focused Company,' discouraging employee discussion of political and social issues at work. He stated it 'would go against our principles of inclusion and belonging to be more of an activist company on issues outside of our core mission.' The company offered severance packages; 60 employees (5% of company) left. A November 2020 NYT article cited 23 current and former staff with complaints, including allegations Black employees were paid 7% less than white colleagues and women were paid 8% less than men.

Scoring Impact

TopicDirectionRelevanceContribution
DEI Programs-againstprimary-1.00
Worker Rights-againstsecondary-0.50
Overall incident score =-0.443

Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.59)

Evidence (1 signal)

Confirms Policy Change Sep 27, 2020 verified

CEO declared Coinbase a 'Mission Focused Company,' discouraging employee activism on social issues

CEO Brian Armstrong wrote a blog post in September 2020 declaring Coinbase a 'Mission Focused Company,' discouraging employee discussion of political and social issues at work. He stated it 'would go against our principles of inclusion and belonging to be more of an activist company on issues outside of our core mission.' The company offered severance packages; 60 employees (5% of company) left. A November 2020 NYT article cited 23 current and former staff with complaints, including allegations Black employees were paid 7% less than white colleagues and women were paid 8% less than men.

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