Inside Coinbase’s $1 billion flop

That’s why we’re excited to announce our new vertical, Fortune Crypto, which launched Tuesday.

Our crypto team has hit the ground running, going behind the scenes of the historic Ethereum merge, making sense of regulatory uncertainty, and exposing Coinbase’s $1 billion failed crypto philanthropy project—which the company hoped would take Bitcoin mainstream.

Instead, Coinbase’s GiveCrypto “would come to represent the dark side of crypto-based charity,” writes reporter Leo Schwartz.

Leo spoke with six global ambassadors who were hired by GiveCrypto to distribute cryptocurrency directly to those in need. The ambassadors detailed how they took on more and more work, sometimes putting in 12-hours days. Leo also learned that GiveCrypto was not paying ambassadors or abruptly cut off payments without notice.

Check out Leo’s full story, below.

GiveCrypto hoped to distribute Bitcoin to those in need. Instead it became a mess of illogical coordination, misplaced assurances, and unpaid labor. Inside the murky world of crypto-based charity: a force for good or misplaced marketing?

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

FINANCE

We spent the day with Larry Summers, the economist who predicted inflation would spiral out of control. He’s still afraid.

The Fed to reset the U.S. housing market through a ‘difficult correction’—5 things to know about the plan

Troubled EV company Canoo loses another 4 senior employees

LEADERSHIP

Million-dollar bonuses aren’t enough to stop the C-suite exodus after a CEO departs

EUROPE

‘An admission that his invasion is failing’: Why Putin’s nuclear threat and escalation in Ukraine are actually signs of weakness

A Dutch-Norwegian startup wants to open ‘a whole new frontier’ of renewable energy with solar farms that float on the ocean’s surface

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