Coinbase And Twitter CEOs Spar Over Politics

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Brian Armstrong is quite the household name in crypto. As founder and CEO of Coinbase, one of the largest crypto platforms in the world and the largest exchange being operated in the US, he holds a great deal of influence in the cryptosphere. He seems to have met his match in Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who recently attacked him over Coinbase’s apolitical stance.

Left leaning

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is known for his outspoken views on many issues. From admitting that his personnel was far more left-leaning (in an famous interview back in 2018) and thus more progressive than any other in Silicon Valley, to even blocking a story by the New York Post on Democratic candidate Joe Biden after US President Trump tried to retweet it this week.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stirred up controversy after he criticized Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s blog post about the company’s apolitical stance.@shauryamalwa reportshttps://t.co/hnUWV9oD7A

— BTC Times (@btc) October 1, 2020

Everybody knows where he and Twitter stand and who he would like to win in the upcoming presidential election. As of late, Dorsey has also ousted himself as a big Bitcoin fan, buying 50 million in BTC for his new company Square.

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Coinbase has planned go non-political for six months. That they had severance packages ready for woke employees who quit shows how carefully planned this move was.

This was followed up by CEO Brian Armstrong doubling down on keeping Coinbase out of woke activism on his blog: pic.twitter.com/BnhLvzEDtJ

— Wokal DistΔnce (@wokal_distance) October 9, 2020

As to Coinbase and CEO Brian Armstrong, none are the wiser, and this clearly upset Dorsey a few weeks ago when he responded to an Armstrong tweet which explained the crypto platform’s apolitical stance. Dorsey reposted the story, and said:

#Bitcoin (aka “crypto”) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society. Important to at least acknowledge and connect the related societal issues your customers face daily.

Silent majority

Leaked audio of an internal Coinbase meeting has since surfaced in which CEO Armstrong alleges that a “silent majority” of staff sides with him in his tough apolitical stance. Everyone who didn’t agree with the new company policy of this crypto behemoth, was offered a generous severance package and asked to leave. Apparently some 5% of staff did.

An anonymous former Coinbase employee said yesterday:

Crypto is political, so the sense is that doing this stems from leadership (Brian) not agreeing with certain political stances. It’s easier to just prohibit any discussion at all.

As the US election draws nearer, we can expect this kind of language and these types of stories to harden.