Kraken CEO Jesse Powell presented a document on the company’s corporate culture and urged all employees who disagreed with its contents to resign.
The document describes the company’s ‘libertarian philosophical values,’ including tolerance of ‘diverse thinking,’ and affirms the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. At the same time, Powell announced the Jet Ski Program, which offers dissenting employees a four-month severance.
According to данным New York Times, in discussions on the corporate Slack messenger Powell allegedly objected to employees’ use of preferred pronouns, discussed the admissibility of racial insults, and stated that American women had ‘brainwashed minds’.
In the same chat, Kraken CEO Christina Yi wrote that ‘the CEO, the company and the corporate culture will not change substantially,’ the Times reports.
‘If someone doesn’t like working here or thinks that they are hated here, work somewhere where you don’t feel revulsion,’ she added.
Employees have until June 20 to decide whether they will continue to work with the exchange.
On Twitter, Jesse Powell wrote that 20 people have already expressed unequivocal disagreement with the program, though their departure will not affect the company’s performance.
‘Diversity is not always easy. It’s funny that the loudest advocates of anti-discrimination do not realise how they discriminate against others. You want to be ‘inclusive’ by asking a candidate for an English teaching position in Saudi Arabia about his pronouns or gender in an interview?’, – asked the Kraken CEO.
He added that most of the exchange’s staff ‘just want to work’ without taking part in ‘debates and therapy sessions,’ so the company will continue to improve pre-employment screening.
Kraken currently employs more than 3,000 people. According to данным The Block Research, in May 2022 the exchange ranked fourth by trading volume.
In April, Kraken confirmed plans for going public in 2022.
The exchange is also considering of offering shares to clients alongside digital assets and NFTs.
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