Brian Armstrong

Posted pro-Israel content after October 7. Coinbase blocked Palestinian users in Gaza from accessing funds. "Mission-focused" policy used to silence internal debate on Palestine.

Armstrong's 2020 "apolitical" memo explicitly banned employee DEI activism and social cause advocacy at work, offering severance to those who disagreed — 60 employees (5%) took the offer. He praised Google's CEO for adopting a similar "mission-first" policy in 2024. Armstrong frames his stance as protecting business focus rather than opposition to diversity itself, but the effect has been to shut down internal DEI organizing.