Coinbase’s No Politics Policy Was A Success: Paul Grewal

Coinbase’s no politics policy that as implemented last year turned out to be a success according to the platform’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal so let’s read more in our latest coinbase news today.

Last year we saw Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong imposing a new apolitical vision for his company’s culture and future. The move was heavily criticized at that time which led to many employees quitting. The CLO of Coinbase Paul Grewal however, said that the mandate was a success and that Coinbase’s no politics policy proves to be efficient.

The San Francisco-based company faced plenty of backlashes last fall after CEO Brian Armstrong wrote a blog post that discouraged employees from participating in discussions about politics and activism at their workspace. Grewal said today that this policy turned out to be a success:

“This was not an easy decision that the company made last fall, and I think the public reaction and the challenges we faced publicly speak to that. But as we look back now with several months of experience operating in this way with our culture explicit for anyone to see, written up in a document available to recruits or others who may be interested in how life works at Coinbase, what we’ve found—candidly—is that this entire approach has been a success. And the reason I think it’s a success is that it’s native to how Coinbase operates, it’s native to the ethos Brian has set for the company.”

Some executives from Silicon Valley praised the commitment of Armstrong to create an apolitical work atmosphere while others believed that this decision was meant to suppress dialogue around the social issues. In the wake of the backlash, Armstrong offered severance packages to the employees that wanted to quit and more than 60 employees took up the offer. The CEO was then accused of violating his own mandate when he tweeted a link to an article about Kanye West’s presidential campaign calling it “epic.”

Why are so many in tech eager to project their politics into everything? Yeesh https://t.co/RaeFVpmxWW

— eliza 👩‍💻 (@ElizaLowercase) April 15, 2021

When asked about whether or not to double down on the apolitical culture and what it can bring to the crypto industry and the diversity problem, Grewal admitted that some people will get discouraged:

“But I don’t know that that reaction is limited to any particular group or part of our community,” he added.