Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange that enables users to trade digital currencies such as Bitcoin, announced yesterday that it had filed with the SEC to become the first Bitcoin-focused company to list on the stock market. This is big news for technology and business, at a time when Bitcoin is trading at unprecedented (but extremely volatile) prices. But Coinbase is also at the front of another, more concerning, trend in tech – one which raises questions about the kind of future such companies are building. At a Coinbase all-staff meeting in June to discuss the company’s response to the unlawful killing of George Floyd and the worldwide protests against racism that followed, employees “walked out” (by closing their laptops) when CEO Brian Armstrong refused to say whether the company would publicly state that “black lives matter”. He later did so on his personal Twitter account, but in September he wrote a blog post in which he stated that company would not engage on