The Email
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.
The Offer
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 section that seemed particularly important.
Ownership of Inventions.
The clause that was supposed to protect me.
It seemed simple enough. Send an email to peopleops and they'll take
care of the rest. I signed my offer letter, sent the email, and
started my new adventure at Coinbase.
The email I sent to peopleops on September 2, 2025, before my start
date. NexusTrade was disclosed.
Until I was contacted by a department that I had never worked
with before... Compliance.
The Conflict
The Conflict of Interest
Now, I want to be very clear about where I'm coming from. I was NOT
hiding an outside business from Coinbase. If you know anything about
me, you know I'm telling the truth.
I talk about my app NexusTrade all of the time. It's on my GitHub
profile. It's on my LinkedIn. It's quite literally the only thing I
post about on Medium.
It's NOT a secret. It's why I was hired.
My interviewers asked me about it. My resume featured it prominently.
Coinbase knew exactly what I was building when they extended the
offer. I disclosed it in writing before my first day, exactly as the
offer letter instructed.
But unbeknownst to me, Coinbase had become interested in the
intersection of AI and trading. In December 2025, they officially
launched Coinbase Advisor. I wasn't paying attention
when they made the announcement; I was far too busy refactoring our
question bank to let our team configure questions through Cursor or
Claude Code instead of the old, error-prone manual process. So when I
received a DM from Coinbase's Legal Team, I knew something started to
feel off.
I kept my cool and cooperated.
I'm not going to bore you with the details. The Coinbase Legal team
had me go through the process. I tried to explain the situation. That
my app is an algorithmic trading platform, that I'm a "one-man shop",
and that there is virtually no overlap with my role working on
institutional onboarding.
They didn't care.
I even became desperate. Started offering concessions like
open-sourcing the project or removing digital assets.
They accepted none.
"It materially competes with Coinbase Advisor. It doesn't matter that
you declared it. It doesn't matter that you've been working on it for
five years. Shut it down, sell it, or resign, your choice."
Yeah. What a choice.
The Suspension
The Suspension
They gave me 30 days to shut down the app, sell it, or resign.
I had poured five years of my life into NexusTrade. Shutting it down
wasn't an option. Selling it overnight wasn't realistic. So I tried to
handle the situation like a professional. If they were effectively
forcing me out over a pre-disclosed side project, I asked if we could
negotiate a standard severance package so we could part ways amicably.
Their response?
Instead of negotiating, they immediately suspended me. On Wednesday,
March 25th, I was placed on leave for sudden "conduct concerns."
The accusation was baseless. I knew it, because I had actually read
the Code of Conduct. During the investigation, they asked me questions
like whether I had worked on NexusTrade during work hours (no) and
whether I had used Coinbase equipment for it (never). I answered
everything honestly. Yes, I had continued working on NexusTrade since
being employed at Coinbase, but always on my own time, on my own
machine.
It felt incredibly retaliatory: a punishment simply for asking for
severance after they backed me into a corner. I raised retaliation
concerns to HR on Monday, March 30th. I also raised the possibility of
racial discrimination. I don't believe a white engineer with a similar
side project would have been treated this way: locked out, shut down,
not allowed to say goodbye. Coinbase has said that denials of outside
activities are "rare." I wonder who's getting denied.
Coinbase fired me one week later.
They dropped the "conduct concerns" framing, switched back to "Outside
Activities Violation," and terminated me effective immediately. They
didn't even honor their own 30-day deadline. No severance. No
transition. My manager didn't even know until the day of.
Here's the timeline:
-
Before Day 1
Disclosed NexusTrade in writing to peopleops, exactly as the
offer letter instructed.
-
December 2025
Coinbase launches Coinbase Advisor. Coinbase Legal contacts me
about NexusTrade. I submit through their review process.
-
Early 2026
Coinbase determines NexusTrade "materially competes" with
Coinbase Advisor. Tells me to shut it down, sell it, or resign
within 30 days.
-
March 24, 2026
I ask for a standard severance package since they're effectively
forcing me out.
-
March 25, 2026
Immediately suspended for "conduct concerns." One day after
asking for severance.
-
March 30, 2026
I raise retaliation and discrimination concerns to HR.
-
April 6, 2026
Fired. "Conduct concerns" dropped. Termination reason: "Outside
Activities Violation." No severance. Nobody on my team was told in
advance.
The Comparison
The App That They're So Afraid Of
So what is this app that Coinbase felt so threatened by? Let me show
you.
NexusTrade: the app that got me fired.
NexusTrade is an
AI-powered, no-code algorithmic trading platform. I built it as a solo
developer over the course of five years. Users can create automated
trading strategies, backtest them against historical data, optimize
parameters using genetic algorithms, and deploy them live through
brokerage integrations with TradeStation, Public, Alpaca, and Tradier.
It supports US-listed stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and listed
options including multi-leg spreads. It has an AI agent called Aurora
that can research stocks, build portfolios, and execute multi-step
tasks through natural language. Users can share their strategies
publicly, copy-trade other users, or monetize their strategies with a
monthly subscription.
Now let's look at what Coinbase claimed it "materially competes" with.
Coinbase Advisor: "The Financial Advisor experience, democratized."
What is Coinbase Advisor?
Coinbase Advisor is an AI-powered financial advisory
tool built into the Coinbase app. It was announced on December 17,
2025 during Coinbase's "System Update 2025" livestream. It's provided
through Coinbase Advisors, LLC, a CFTC-registered Commodity Trading
Advisor and NFA member.
Coinbase is a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company. The tagline for Advisor:
"The Financial Advisor experience, democratized."
Here's what it actually does: users type natural language requests
like "Build me a portfolio" or "What's the latest market news?" The AI
asks clarifying questions about risk tolerance and investment goals,
evaluates the user's existing holdings, and generates a personalized
asset allocation. Users can review, edit, and adjust the
recommendations before executing. It is non-discretionary, meaning the
AI never trades without the user's explicit permission.
As of early 2026, Coinbase Advisor is still in beta and available
primarily to Coinbase One subscribers. Its investment frameworks were
developed by a team of portfolio managers with over 75 years of
combined experience from traditional asset management.
The Side-by-Side
Here is a fair, feature-by-feature comparison between the two
products:
| Feature |
NexusTrade |
Coinbase Advisor |
| Primary Function |
Algorithmic trading platform |
AI financial advisor / chatbot |
| US Stocks & ETFs |
Yes |
Planned
Coinbase launched stock trading separately
|
| Options Trading |
Yes
Multi-leg spreads, Greeks
|
No |
| Cryptocurrency |
Yes |
Yes |
| Algorithmic / Rule-Based Trading |
Yes
No-code strategy builder
|
No |
| Backtesting |
Yes
OHLC and intraday, Rust engine
|
No |
| Portfolio Optimization |
Yes
Genetic algorithms
|
No |
| AI Assistant |
Yes
Aurora agent
|
Yes
Core product
|
| Personalized Recommendations |
Via AI |
Yes
Curated by portfolio managers
|
| External Brokerage Integration |
Yes
4 brokerages
|
No
Coinbase ecosystem only
|
| Copy Trading / Social |
Yes |
No |
| Strategy Monetization |
Yes |
No |
| MCP / API Access |
Yes
32 tools
|
No |
| DCA / Automated Buying |
Yes |
Yes |
| Yield / Staking |
Partial
~3% via Alpaca
|
Yes
USDC lending
|
| Regulatory Status |
Independent platform |
CFTC-registered CTA, NFA member |
| Team Size |
1 person |
Multi-billion dollar public company |
| Status |
Live, public |
Beta, waitlist |
Where They Actually Overlap
Let me be honest about the overlap. Both products have an AI
assistant. Both support cryptocurrency. Both allow dollar-cost
averaging. These are real similarities.
But "both have AI" and "both support crypto" is an extraordinarily
broad definition of competition. By that logic, any software engineer
who has ever built a side project involving AI or cryptocurrency is a
competitive threat to Coinbase. That's not a reasonable standard.
The core products are fundamentally different. NexusTrade is an
algorithmic trading platform. You build rule-based strategies,
backtest them against years of historical data, optimize them with
genetic algorithms, and deploy them across four external brokerages.
Coinbase Advisor is a conversational AI that recommends crypto
allocations within the Coinbase ecosystem. One is an engine. The other
is a chatbot.
The math
Out of 18 feature categories, the two products share
4 (crypto support, AI assistant, DCA,
yield/staking). NexusTrade has 10 features that
Coinbase Advisor does not. Coinbase Advisor has
1 feature (CTA registration) that NexusTrade does
not. The overlap is 22%.
Coinbase decided that 22% overlap was enough to call it "material
competition" and fire someone who disclosed the project before their
first day.
The Lesson
What I Learned
I did everything right. I read my offer letter. I used AI to review
it. I disclosed my project in writing before my first day. I
cooperated with Legal. I offered concessions. I asked for a
professional resolution.
None of it mattered.
The lesson here is uncomfortable but important: disclosure does not
protect you. Having the rules on your side does not protect you.
Cooperation does not protect you. When a company decides you're a
problem, the process exists to justify the outcome, not to find the
truth.
I'm not bitter. I'm building.
NexusTrade is still live. I'm still a one-man shop. And now I don't
have to ask anyone's permission to work on the thing I've spent five
years of my life creating.
Years Building
5
since 2021
Status
Live
still shipping
If you want to check out the app that got me fired, you can find it at
NexusTrade.io. If
you've ever been in a similar situation, I'd genuinely like to hear
your story.
And to my former team at Coinbase: I'm sorry I didn't get to say
goodbye. You deserved better than that. So did I.
This article reflects my personal experience and perspective. The
timeline and events described are based on my own records and
recollections. I have not disclosed any confidential Coinbase
information or intellectual property. All opinions expressed are my
own.
