Brian Armstrong fired for tone-deaf tweet on International Women’s Day
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (second from left) tweeted a photo of an all-male crypto dinner on International Women’s Day. Brian Armstrong via Twitter
Wednesday was International Women’s Day, but that seems to have escaped Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who tweeted a photo of himself and a group of all-male, all-white crypto co-founders. The critics were quick.
Hosted a great “build back better” dinner in NY with some crypto company founders. This crypto industry has many strong and compliant companies (even if the headlines would lead one to believe otherwise).
Doing the job year after year isn’t always sexy, but it’s important… pic.twitter.com/sLx2nWuYuD
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 8, 2023
Several users pointed out the irony of hosting a “build back better dinner,” as Armstrong put it, on International Women’s Day without including some female founders who are also making an impact in the room.
If you need some awesome female crypto leaders to invite to future “build back better” dinners, feel free to drop some tips! Happy belated International Women’s Day!
— Clara 📪 Tsao.eth (@tweetclarita) March 9, 2023
The list of attendees included CEO of AAVE, Stani Kulechov; Composite CEO Robert Leshner; CEO of Messari, Ryan Selkis; the co-founder of Paradigm, Fred Ehrsam; Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla; and Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis.
Yes, a group of privileged white men are going to save the world.
Amazing revelation bro.
— August V (@AugustCohen4) March 9, 2023
The image came to mind last year when, like many other companies celebrating International Women’s Day, Bain Capital Ventures partner Stefan Cohen tweeted a photo of the company’s seven-person, all-male crypto team. Because Bain is one of the world’s largest investors in startups, many people raised concerns about blind spots that an all-male team might have when investing its $560 million crypto fund.
The tweet was heavily criticized, and Cohen eventually deleted it and apologized.
But the tone-deaf blunders reveal a more systematic problem with diversity in crypto.
A survey published last July found that all CEOs of the 32 largest crypto companies in the world were men, and several of them had no women on their boards. In the startup world, companies founded by women received just 1.9% of venture funding last year, down from 2.4% in 2021.
some traditions are so embedded in the culture that it would take a biblical leveling for us to exaggerate them.
in crypto, there are men posting photos of inspiring people in crypto with exclusively white men on international women’s day
may this sacred traditional survive us all
— cokie (@cokiehasiotis) March 8, 2023
