I was fired from my software engineering job at Coinbase for building an AI trading platform. Here’s what happened.

When I woke up to the email, I knew I should've prepared for the worst. I didn't expect this. "The investigation has concluded and it has found that you violated the Company's Outside Activities Policy. Due to this violation, Coinbase is terminating your employment, effective immediately." So... matter of factly. Without empathy. Cruel. I wasn't the only one that was surprised. My entire team, including my manager, found out the day of. I was suspended, left in the dark, then promptly fired... even though I followed the rules. Here's what happened. Jumping for Joy at My Initial Offer When I got my initial offer from Coinbase, I couldn't stop talking about it. As someone who has been intrinsically passionate about investing for years, this was finally my chance to apply my passion with a big-boy job. Who wouldn't be excited? I got my offer contract and read it over and over again. But not just me. I also used ChatGPT and Claude to make sure I wasn't missing anything. There was one secti