Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has announced that it will be implementing an almost-total company shutdown for four weeks out of the year in order to allow its employees time to rest and recharge, reports CoinTelegraph.
The popular crypto exchange often has what it describes as “long days and long weeks” of work that can be very demanding and change at the drop of a hat. In order to combat negative effects on employees, Coinbase will be shutting down for a week each quarter to give employees a chance to recover in an experiment to see if it helps stave off the potential for burnout.
“We realized in 2020 that many employees weren’t taking enough time off to recharge, either because they didn’t want to force their teammates to cover for them or because they didn’t want to fall behind on their work,” said L.J. Brock, chief people officer for Coinbase. “We knew this was unsustainable, so we scheduled a recharge week at the end of 2020 and two recharge weeks in 2021, when nearly the entire company would shut down. […] Subsequent employee surveys made it clear: Recharge weeks work.”
Coinbase’s experimental time off for employees comes in the midst of the “Great Resignation,” in which record numbers of employees are leaving their jobs and fighting back against unfavorable working conditions.
Coinbase has been on the front edge of employee care in the pandemic, announcing at the beginning of the pandemic that employees could work from home and would be able to continue doing so after the pandemic. The company has gone as far as to close its headquarters last year and will be closing its San Francisco office as it moves to pushing for remote work as the primary means of labor.
“Four weeks of coordinated recharge time might sound like a lot of time off for a company in hypergrowth, but given the intensity of our work throughout the year, we think this is the best way to ensure our pace is sustainable for the long term,” Coinbase writes in its blog.
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The Valkyrie Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF (VBB) offers investors exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation and the growing bitcoin economy. The fund is actively managed and invests in companies that carry bitcoin in some manner on their balance sheets, whether it’s by investing, transacting, or other exposures such as through exchanges.
Valkyrie invests in companies that have both innovative balance sheets and the best total return potential, which takes into consideration standard metrics such as price to earnings, price to book, and growth ratios. In determining the weighting, Valkyrie considers the financial metrics in tandem with the percentage of blockchain that a company has on its balance sheet.
Up to 10% of the fund can be invested in bitcoin miners, and it can also invest up to 20% in companies that it believes will have an innovative balance sheet within the next one to three years based on current activities of the company and announcements.
The fund can invest up to 15% of its net assets in preferred securities and convertible notes, and up to 10% into non-U.S. securities. The fund can also invest up to 5% of its assets into securities of U.S. pooled investment vehicles holding bitcoin.
Coinbase (COIN) is carried within the fund at a 9.43% weighting; other companies include MicroStrategy (MSTR) at 14.12% weight, Tesla (TSLA) at 10.37% weight, and Block (SQ) at 10.03% weight.
VBB carries an expense ratio of 0.75% and does not invest in bitcoin directly.
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