Coinbase is closing its headquarter in San Francisco to promote remote work models. In May 2020, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the “remote-first” company plan after the pandemic. In February 2022, Coinbase will shut San Francisco HQ to promote a decentralized office strategy and remote work model.
As Coinbase confirms on Wednesday, most of the employees will choose between working from home or in the office. The company’s long-term vision aims to implement hybrid solutions and smaller offices across the states rather than the HQ in San Francisco.
Following the pandemic, tech elites left Silicon Valley thanks to remote work opportunities. Most professionals migrate to low-tax states such as Nebraska and Nevada, where local incentives attract remote workers from all over the US. In February, Armstrong said that around 150 Coinbase employees left the HQ. Almost 30% of the San Francisco workforce moved away from the city to work remotely since January 2020.
As the Coinbase CEO states, ‘This means that in the future, anyone who wants to can continue to work from an office. That won’t change. What is changing is that (almost) any employee who prefers to work outside of an office, can. For many employees, it will probably be a mix of both.’
The benefits of remote work are convincing most companies to switch to hybrid models. Tech leaders such as Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, and Ford will stay remote post-pandemic, and some companies are even canceling office leases. Coinbase is officially following this trend.
