- Kraken CEO is offering four months’ salary to employees who disagree with his values to leave.
- The program is called “Jet Ski,” and employees have until June 20 to participate, the New York Times reported.
- “We want it to feel like you’re jumping on a jet ski and happily embarking on your next adventure!” Read a memo about the project.
Loading Something is loading.
Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, pays its employees four months’ wages if they disagree with its values, according to the New York Times.
In a Wednesday report detailing internal cultural turmoil at the company, the publication cited interviews with Kraken employees who reported “hurtful” comments about preferred pronouns and demeaning remarks made about women, among others by CEO Jesse Powell.
Employees also said Powell held a company-wide meeting on June 1 where he unveiled the program called “Jet Ski,” designed to encourage employees to leave if they don’t believe in Kraken’s cryptotypical libertarian principles, the Times reported .
A 31-page document known as “Kraken Culture Explained” positions the program as a “recommitment” to the company’s core values. Employees have until June 20 to participate in the acquisitions, the Times reported.
“When you decide to leave Kraken, we want it to feel like you’re hopping on a jet ski and happily embarking on your next adventure!” Read a memo about the acquisitions, according to the Times.
Kraken did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
On Monday, Kraken executive Christina Yee wrote to employees on Slack that “the CEO, the company and the culture will not change in any meaningful way,” and urged employees to “go somewhere that doesn’t disgust you.” ‘ reported the Times.
Pending the publication of the articles, Powell said on Twitter on Wednesday that “most people don’t care and just want to work but can’t be productive if triggered people keep dragging them into debates and therapy sessions committing, disagreeing and committing or taking the money.”
“20 out of 3,200” employees disagree with the company’s values, Powell said, while noting that there had been “some heated debates.”
Anti-establishment sentiment is rampant in cryptocurrency and other decentralized finance spaces. It has brought the industry common ground with some conservative figures who denounce ideals in favor of what they see as free speech.
Powell’s Kraken culture manifesto includes a section headed “We don’t ban vulgarity,” stresses the importance of “tolerance for different thinking,” and said “law-abiding citizens should be able to arm themselves,” according to the Times.
Powell is not alone in his stance. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, similarly said a “wake mind virus” is affecting the business of streaming giant Netflix, which also shared a culture memo with employees in May.
The company asked employees to quit if they disagreed with the content presented, such as Take, for example, controversial comedian Dave Chappelle’s program, which sparked a backlash over jokes about transgender people.
Musk retweeted the message with the caption: “Nice move by @netflix.”