coinbase
PEOPLE OPERATIONS & WORKPLACE ARCHITECTURE
EXECUTIVE POLICY DIRECTIVE
Decentralized Workplace Governance
TO:
All Global Coinbase Employees, People Managers & Executive Leadership
FROM:
Brian Armstrong, Chief Executive O
ffi
cer & Chief People O
ffi
cer
DATE:
September 18, 2026
SUBJECT:
Coinbase Remote Work Directive: Remote-First Architecture, Async Norms &
Operational Security
1. PURPOSE & STRATEGIC FOUNDATION
In May 2020, Coinbase made the de
fi
nitive decision to become a "remote-
fi
rst" company, dismantling the concept of a
single corporate headquarters. As an organization building an open, decentralized
fi
nancial system for the world, our
workplace model re
fl
ects our core product philosophy: borderless talent, meritocratic contribution, and decentralized
authority.
This memorandum codi
fi
es our operational remote-work policy. It de
fi
nes expectations for asynchronous
collaboration, eliminates geographic biases in career progression, outlines our location-agnostic compensation
philosophy, and mandates zero-trust information security standards across all home and co-working environments.
2. FOUR CORE PILLARS OF THE REMOTE-FIRST OPERATING MODEL
Every team, project sprint, and business function is structured around four immutable remote-
fi
rst tenets:
No Single Headquarters (Decentralized Core):
Coinbase has no o
ffi
cial executive headquarters. Executive
leadership is distributed globally, ensuring in-o
ffi
ce presence is never con
fl
ated with impact, visibility, or career
advancement.
Documentation & Asynchronous Default:
We default to structured written memos, pre-reads, and asynchronous
feedback loops rather than real-time synchronous meetings. Decisions must be documented in durable formats
accessible across global time zones.
Output and Impact Over Presence:
Performance is evaluated strictly on delivered outcomes, code commits,
customer impact, and adherence to our cultural values, completely divorcing compensation and promotion from
logged desk hours or physical location.
Mission-Focused Culture:
As codi
fi
ed in our foundational operating guidelines, our remote channels remain
strictly focused on our mission of increasing economic freedom in the world. Workplace chat is reserved for
productive, professional execution.
Remote-First Golden Rule:
If even one person on a team is remote, the entire meeting or sprint must operate as if
100% remote. No small clusters of in-o
ffi
ce attendees may hold undocumented sidebar discussions that exclude
distributed colleagues.
3. ASYNCHRONOUS WORKING NORMS & MEETING DISCIPLINE
To empower engineers and individual contributors with deep, uninterrupted focus time, teams are instructed to
implement silent memo reading periods at the start of complex meetings and enforce company-wide "No Meeting
Thursdays." Real-time video calls should be utilized only for urgent issue triaging, collaborative brainstorming, or 1-on-
1 development sessions.
Coinbase Global, Inc.
—
Con
fi
dential Internal Workplace Policy
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