Crypto exchange corporate culture battle, who is your pick?
After you start working, your cultural temperament is shaped by your company.Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
When I was a child, I often heard adults describe someone as "cultured."
I curiously asked, what does it mean to be cultured?
The adults told me it was a kind of quality that couldn't be articulated but could be felt; you would understand once you grew up and started working.
After I started working and received a "corporate culture" manual, I, who didn't particularly enjoy reading, finally began to sense the essence of culture.
After all, once you start working, your cultural quality is shaped by your company.
When someone is full of phrases like "breaking through mental barriers, closing the loop, reviewing, empowering, grasping, benchmarking, and consolidating…" and says, "Dude, you must be from Alibaba," if they also say, "You're new, you should sacrifice a bit, how about March 25 this year," then they are likely at P8.
If a veteran in the crypto space shares tips on how to leverage company resources for personal gain, you might smile knowingly and think, "Dude, you've been at XX exchange, right?"
Corporate culture is like a company's underwear; it may seem unimportant since outsiders can't see it, but it must exist; otherwise, it's easy to expose oneself.
Some say corporate culture is simply how the boss wants employees to behave, and employees must comply, commonly referred to as PUA.
True corporate culture should be a set of values recognized by everyone in the company, like a group of like-minded drinking buddies who can passionately discuss the company's mission until the early hours—though they might regret it the next day, at least they were passionate.
We can easily recall the corporate cultures of some well-known internet companies, such as Tencent's "to be a respected company" and Google's "don't be evil," but what do you know about the corporate cultures of companies in the crypto industry?
This article compares the corporate cultures of the five largest crypto exchanges globally, each with its own merits. Which one suits you?
Coinbase: Pursuing Victory Like an NBA Team
The established crypto exchange platform Coinbase has always emphasized building corporate culture, with its mission to promote economic freedom worldwide and create an open financial system.
Coinbase often compares its team to a sports team, with one of its cultural principles being to compete like a championship team, which requires:
Company First: As #OneCoinbase, prioritize the company's goals above any specific team or individual goals.
Act for a Greater Mission: Unite and strive to accomplish things that none of us could achieve alone.
Default to Trust: We assume goodwill among teammates and that ignorance is preferable to malice. We support each other.
Focus on Commonalities, Not Differences: We concentrate on our commonalities rather than our differences, helping to create a sense of cohesion and unity.
Sustained High Performance: Unlike family, everyone participates regardless of performance, and championship teams work together to raise talent standards, including replacing team members when necessary.
Corporate Mission: Promote economic freedom worldwide.
Top Ten Corporate Culture Principles of Coinbase:
Clear Communication: Communicate directly and concisely, sharing information efficiently to enhance collaboration and productivity.
Efficient Execution: Prioritize action, quickly completing high-quality work, advocating for achieving 80% of results with 20% of the effort.
Act Like an Owner: Work proactively, seeking to improve all aspects of the company, even issues unrelated to work.
Continuous Learning: Value learning, willingly provide and accept honest feedback, and view every setback as a learning opportunity.
Attract Top Talent: Committed to attracting top talent, Coinbase offers generous severance packages for underperforming employees.
Build the Strongest Team: Focus on creating a successful team rather than fostering a warm and loving family atmosphere; we have high expectations for performance and deliverables.
Customer-Centric: Focus on solving customer problems with technology, becoming the most convenient, reliable, and secure platform.
Continuous Innovation: Use technology to improve the world; Coinbase tolerates failure and invests 10% of resources in risky projects.
Positive Energy: Maintain an optimistic outlook for the future, addressing problems first rather than assigning blame when difficulties arise.
Mission First: During work hours, do not engage in social or political activities unrelated to the mission, striving to make the workplace a refuge from division and focusing on advancing the mission.
Overall, despite the subtle expression, Coinbase's corporate culture reveals two hidden points:
The company is not a family; Coinbase only wants excellent employees, and those who perform poorly will leave. Coinbase's corporate culture still has a predatory side.
Coinbase emphasizes finding common ground while allowing for differences and stresses not participating in social and political activities. Previously, Coinbase faced accusations from employees regarding gender and racial discrimination, making related social and political issues areas Coinbase avoids, as political correctness increasingly becomes a straitjacket for American companies.
Binance: Committed to Currency Freedom, Hiring Hardcore Employees
As the largest trading platform in the industry, Binance has been the subject of much research, especially regarding effective cross-cultural management in remote work settings.
In an official article titled "How Binance Efficiently Manages Remote Teams," two points were mentioned: Establish corporate values conducive to remote work and cultivate a culture of continuous communication.
In July this year, Binance co-founder He Yi stated in a media interview that one of the positive aspects of Binance over the past seven years is its solid corporate culture.
Binance's corporate values can be summarized in a quote from CZ: "We view cryptocurrency as a fundamental means to enhance currency freedom. Therefore, we strive to promote cryptocurrency and enable its circulation worldwide. Every product and service from Binance contributes to this goal, and putting users first is our key driving force."
Vision: Binance is committed to increasing global currency freedom, believing that spreading this freedom can significantly improve people's lives around the world. People should have the freedom to access, use, own, store, and earn currency.
Mission: Binance's mission is to provide core infrastructure services for cryptocurrency.
Core Values:
User-Centric: Users and the community are the reason for Binance's existence; their work is to serve and protect users, prioritizing their interests.
Freedom: Execute responsibly and work autonomously, empowering those around us, fostering a diverse team, and challenging the status quo.
Collaboration: Open communication, teamwork, shared goals, and co-building ecosystems.
Hardcore: Focus on results, complete tasks with passion, work hard, learn quickly from failures, and get back up.
Humility: Accept criticism and feedback, treat everyone equally, and remain humble in success.
Code of Conduct:
Effective Communication: Concise verbal and written communication, direct honesty without "sugarcoating" or selective reporting, clear requests, and providing sufficient context.
Maintain Enthusiasm: Be passionate about the industry and important work, proactive, driven by mission rather than money.
Continuous Learning: Be an early adopter, constantly learn, and adapt to this emerging and dynamic industry.
Respect Others' Time: Be punctual and detail-oriented (e.g., mute, prepare the camera) to show respect.
Cultivate Strong Leadership: Build streamlined teams, mentor and nurture, maintain a strong backup, and lead by example.
Understand Company Strategy: Grasp the big picture, develop a keen sense of business and industry, cultivate good judgment, prioritize the team, and focus on execution.
Develop a Grassroots Mindset: Stay close to the community, maintain authenticity, and rely on social media rather than traditional media.
Exhibit Complete Candor: Be forthright, provide comprehensive data, focus on issues rather than individuals, accept direct feedback, and do not shy away from escalating problems.
From this, we can see not only the values advocated by Binance but also its style of operation, summarized as pursuing direct point-to-point communication, advocating for connecting with users through social media rather than traditional media, and using its platform to voice opinions rather than relying on third-party channels. Thus, we can also see CZ and He Yi frequently communicating directly with users on X. Internally, Binance maintains a flat communication style; several employees have mentioned receiving late-night calls from CZ to discuss work matters.
Bitget: The Huawei of the Crypto World, Let Results Speak for You
When discussing predatory culture, one must mention a Chinese company, Huawei.
Huawei's corporate culture and management philosophy have long been admired by many crypto industry leaders. For instance, Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu has a "Huawei faith," not only learning from Huawei comprehensively but also frequently poaching talent from them.
Despite the controversies surrounding Huawei's predatory culture, it is undeniable that Huawei's management and culture embody "pragmatism" and "efficiency" to the extreme.
In any industry, if Huawei enters as a competitor, everyone in that industry will be restless, and the industry will face a reshuffle.
Since Huawei and Seres jointly launched the AITO, the highest-selling new car manufacturer, Li Xiang, its founder, has called on every executive to buy at least ten books about Huawei for study.
In the crypto space, which company resembles Huawei the most?
One subjective view is------Bitget.
Bitget's predatory culture is widely known in the industry, but most people's understanding of predatory culture is rather superficial.
According to Bitget CEO Gracy's previous interviews, in addition to a vision and mission, Bitget's corporate culture has four core values:
Vision: We believe the crypto revolution will create a fairer future world.
Mission: We create ultimate trading products that make future finance accessible, safe, and efficient.
Values:
User First: Always prioritize the needs of users;
Integrity and Honesty: Zero tolerance for any form of dishonesty;
Open Communication: Encourage team members to communicate directly and provide feedback on issues rather than avoiding or escalating them;
Get Results: Emphasize a data-driven and results-oriented work approach.
This expression may seem abstract, but during Token2049, Bitget hosted nearly ten events, showcasing the efficiency and execution of Bitget employees, making it the most prominent exchange during the event: signing with La Liga (Spanish Football League), surpassing 45 million global users, achieving a daily trading volume of over $10 billion, and monthly visits exceeding 30 million, with BGB outperforming BTC… These labels left a deep impression on attendees.
From my experiences working with Bitget, I can identify two major characteristics of its corporate culture.
First, high expectations and the courage to boldly challenge the existing landscape.
This is quite similar to Huawei; when Huawei first entered the European wireless market, Yu Chengdong told the team that Huawei would become number one in the wireless field, surpassing Ericsson, and most people internally "looked at him like he was an idiot." In 2012, Yu Chengdong stated that Huawei would launch a flagship phone much more powerful than the iPhone 5, which drew ridicule… However, outstanding teams often turn bold claims into reality.
For example, when most people believed the crypto wallet sector had reached its peak and the landscape was set, Bitget Wallet recently emerged as a strong contender.
In August this year, Bitget Wallet App downloads reached 2 million, ranking first among global Web3 wallets, with monthly active users (MAU) exceeding 12 million.
Initially, I doubted the authenticity of this data and privately asked relevant BG personnel if they had inflated the numbers. They firmly denied it, stating, "Absolutely not," and indicated that "the actual data is even higher," as the figures only accounted for two major app stores.
When asked about the reason, they attributed it to Bitget Wallet's early support for the TON mainnet's MPC wallet solution and collaborations with over 50 projects like Catizen, Tomarket, and Notcoin. On-chain data showed that in August, Bitget Wallet contributed to 17% of the active addresses on the TON chain.
Second, decentralization of authority, with everything being results-oriented.
Many companies, after growing large, easily fall into a "political quagmire," where internal strife and factionalism lead to inefficiency. In such cases, employees with "high emotional intelligence" who excel at upward management often carve out their own space. However, this does not seem to be an issue at Bitget, as its corporate culture is "talk is cheap; let results speak for you." Furthermore, everyone is too busy to engage in internal strife; they are focused on outpacing others rather than competing internally. High expectations inevitably come with high pressure, but Bitget has a corresponding rule: "Meritocracy; those who deliver results will receive ample authority and rewards."
In summary, unlike other corporate cultures that may emphasize ideology to some extent, Bitget's corporate culture is rooted in pragmatism, with everything being results-oriented. Those without results are out, while those with capability and results are rewarded. This simplicity and efficiency seem to explain, from a cultural perspective, why Bitget Exchange and its wallets, investments, and other ecosystems have made remarkable progress in recent years.
Kraken: The Ten Commandments, A Must-Read for Crypto Professionals
Before founding Kraken, Jesse Powell ran a virtual goods marketplace called Lewt but was constantly troubled by payment issues.
In 2011, when Jesse and his partner discovered Bitcoin, they sold Lewt and founded Kraken, believing that if they could promote Bitcoin adoption, it would improve the lives of billions.
From its inception, Kraken has embodied the cyberpunk and libertarian values of its founder Jesse, but like Coinbase, in an increasingly politicized America, Jesse has faced accusations of gender and racial discrimination from the media.
After the public uproar, Kraken issued a corporate culture declaration called the "Ten Taclemandments," encouraging those who do not align with the company's culture and values to leave with four months' salary.
The Kraken Ten Commandments have become a classic in crypto corporate culture.
1. Crypto is for Everyone
Bitcoin removes politics from money. This means anyone can freely transact on the Bitcoin network as long as they can cryptographically prove control of their keys.
2. Must Have a Sense of Mission and Belief
At Kraken, our mission is to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency globally because we believe this will improve the lives of billions and usher in a new era of human prosperity.
3. Keep Up with the Crypto Industry or Fall Behind
Reconnaissance and intelligence gathering are key parts of our strategy; decentralized decision-making requires all of us to be informed.
4. Know Yourself and Your Opponent
Every customer-facing product should be familiar to every Kraken employee. If asked to describe or demonstrate any product used by our customers, no Kraken employee should hesitate.
5. Professional but "Casual"
Kraken employees focus on results, which is why we value skills and knowledge over certificates and appearances. This is also why we work remotely in pajamas rather than in suits at the office.
6. Pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Sound Money
The crypto movement is rooted in "dangerous" ideas, such as the basic rights of all humans: cryptography, free speech, free markets, currency choice, open-source software, and personal and financial privacy…
7. At Times, You Will Be Offended
If no one is offended, we either lack sufficient diversity of thought or transparency of communication. If you always feel comfortable, you might be doing something wrong. The ideal Kraken employee is both thick-skinned and kind-hearted.
8. Our Mission is Unique
We have no second mission, which means when we encounter issues, the only criterion for judgment is whether doing this thing will help achieve our ultimate mission.
9. A Global Perspective Drives True Inclusivity
Hiring should be based on performance, not merely qualifications or appearances. Diversity is not just about superficial physical differences but also about diversity from different backgrounds and cultures worldwide. Silicon Valley's view of global diversity is a dangerous limitation and commodification of individuals; we emphasize equal opportunity regardless of background.
10. The Key to Being a Kraken Employee: Chivalry
Bureaucracy must die; we resolutely avoid the vicious cycle of nonsense and bureaucracy that often comes with company growth. Therefore, we strive to maintain small teams, designate DRIs, and disdain office politics.
After the release of the Kraken Ten Commandments, they quickly gained traction, with most people internally and in the crypto field siding with Jesse. Less than 1% of Kraken employees left, and due to the influence of the commandments, Kraken received a large number of job applications, highlighting the importance of corporate culture.
It is not difficult to see that, like Coinbase, Kraken is also troubled by ideological and political correctness. In this context, a clear and concise corporate culture becomes particularly important, not only to attract like-minded employees but also to set up a "warning sign" for some people not to come.
Upbit: Trust and Progress
A fun fact: South Korea's largest crypto exchange, Upbit, is not a native crypto exchange but a subsidiary of a fintech company.
In 2012, South Korea's fintech Dunamu Inc. was officially established and received investment from K Cube Ventures (now Kakao Ventures) the following year. In 2014, Dunamu launched the securities trading platform Stockplus, and in the second half of 2017, with the help of the American cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex, Upbit was officially launched, now becoming Dunamu's most valuable company.
When discussing Upbit's corporate culture, it is essentially Dunamu's corporate culture, which can be described as very fintech and not at all crypto.
Dunamu's mission is: Connect & Unlock Value, creating new value by connecting different themes and earning customer trust through beneficial technology.
"We launched Stockplus because we believe the core of the securities market will shift from desktop to mobile. We are also confident in the evolution of blockchain and launched Korea's first mobile app-based digital asset exchange, Upbit. We were fortunate to accurately grasp the trend changes and continue to technically develop trading for all value objects, making it convenient and simple for everyone. Now, we further challenge our borderless technology expansion to unlock previously unimaginable value."
Dunamu has two core values:
Trust: Everyone at Dunamu is an expert in their field. Customer trust in our services is our top priority, so we respect colleagues' opinions and decisions. Our culture of horizontal communication based on trust enables us to launch convenient and secure services.
Drive: Even when we are in a leading position, we still pursue faster progress. Once we focus on our goals, we can eliminate the fear of failure and seize opportunities to lead change. Customers are at the core of all our decisions. We always research, explore, and work for our customers. Our leaders make quick and accurate decisions based on horizontal communication.
Compared to platforms like Kraken, which have detailed corporate cultures, Dunamu's corporate culture is very simple and direct, without particularly emphasizing the vision of cryptocurrency and blockchain. They just want to do one thing: continuously improve and gain users' trust.
Perhaps due to the parent company's background in the financial industry, Upbit maintains exceptionally strict internal management, such as strictly limiting employees and their immediate family members from selling and exchanging crypto assets on Upbit, and establishing the Upbit Market Monitoring System (UMO). Dunamu publishes a transparency report on the Upbit website every year.
In terms of listing new coins, Upbit also maintains a very cautious and stringent attitude, making the entire Upbit seem quite mysterious within the industry.
In summary, Upbit is essentially a fintech company trading crypto assets, holding itself to the high standards of the financial industry and pursuing user trust to the extreme.
