Kraken, one of the most popular cryptocurrency brokers in the United States, has become the latest to take a hardline stance against what it perceives as widespread “wokeness” and “cancel culture” in the workplace.
The company, which recently made headlines after closing its San Francisco headquarters, has decided to sharpen its hiring policy to reflect the type of workplace culture it intends to foster.
No Layoffs, Kraken Is Growing
On Wednesday, Kraken published its work culture in a blog post outlining their future vision for the organization. The post particularly addressed what Kraken will be looking for in new employees, as well as a few workplace culture improvements that the firm will be making in the future.
Kraken’s first assertion highlights that the company is still committed to hiring. The exchange, which ranks in the top five in terms of daily trading volumes, plans to add up to 500 new employees in the next months in order to scale up and improve productivity.
Kraken’s hiring frenzy coincides with the downsizing of many of its competitors. Coinbase, another major US altcoin exchange, laid off 1100 employees earlier this week, citing a need to cut costs amid the market downturn.
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, announced on Tuesday that the business had let off 18 per cent of its personnel in order to focus on preserving long-term development in the face of a long economic recovery.
Coinbase isn’t the only company trimming its workforce. Several other crypto-friendly firms, including stock trading app Robinhood, crypto trading platform BlockFi, and the Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini Foundation, have also laid off between 10% and 20% of their employees. Crypto.com, another fast-rising cryptocurrency exchange, also cut 5% of its workers last week.
That means making difficult and necessary decisions to ensure continued and sustainable growth for the long term by making targeted reductions of approximately 260 or 5% of our corporate workforce.
— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) June 11, 2022
Despite the wave, some companies have swum against the tide. FTX, which recently climbed to #2 among exchanges in daily trading volumes, has committed to continue operating, with CEO Sam Bankman-Fried pointing out that they would continue to hire and onboard staff just as they did when the market was roaring.
1) Zig Zag and hiring:
why FTX is going to keep growing as others cut jobs
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) June 6, 2022
Now, Kraken appears to be toeing the same line.
But, there’s a catch.
No Place for Wokeness
While Kraken is looking to bring in top talent, the company has also made it clear that it would be doing so based on certain conditions.
In its post, Kraken outlined its “crypto first” policy, which essentially states that crypto is for everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs. An attached document demonstrates the company’s culture fundamentals, which allude to the libertarian views shared by both Kraken and its controversial head honcho, Jesse Powell.
Amongst other things, Kraken has pointed out its belief in the constitutional basis for free markets, freedom of speech, and even armed self-defence. But, while freedom of speech is protected at Kraken, the company also indicates that some employees would eventually be offended by the expression of other peoples’ views.
As the document explained, employees are to refrain from tagging the words of other employees as “hateful”, “toxic”, “racist”, “x-phobic”, and more. Instead, Kraken charges its employees to “calmly challenge ideas with logic, reason, and better ideas”.
Never one to shy away from discourse, Powell was quick to hop on Twitter to shed more light. In a thread, the CEO pointed out that a small number of Kraken’s employees had raised issues with the new policy. He explained that these employees were especially concerned with issues like personal pronouns, use of the N-word, sexual orientation, and ‘violent words’.
Powell also noted employees’ propensity to fall in line when the market goes good, then make a U-turn when things start to get dire. He reiterated that the company’s objective of spreading crypto worldwide should come first regardless of the market’s dynamics.
4/ Great talent, bad fit. When things were rosy, everybody got along. When things started to look grim, sensitivities and the misalignment came through. People focused on minor slights, first world problems rather than our really big, important Mission to help billions of people.
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) June 15, 2022
Align or Jump Ship
As Kraken looks to upscale, the company seeks to ensure a workplace that fits with its vision. Most likely, employees who don’t fit into this mould will be asked to step down from their positions.
The exchange isn’t the first to take a controversial stance on social issues. In September 2020, a controversial post on the Coinbase blog discouraged employees from talking about politics at the workplace.
At the time, Coinbase CEO Armstrong explained the need for the company to ensure “political neutrality” at work. Like Powell, Armstrong explained then that the goal of everyone should solely be the promotion of crypto across the world. Thus, the company would not allow employees to champion social causes or stand for any form of politics. Armstrong asked that employees who had issues with this policy were free to leave as “life is too short to work at a company that you aren’t excited about”.
The reactions to Kraken’s post have been less harsh than Coinbase. However, if Powell is to be believed, many of the company’s employees seem to agree with this policy.
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