Working for a crypto startup can be a negative on your resume/CV as well.
In reality, practically nobody cares and most employers are more than happy to hire experienced engineers who happened to work at some employers who did sketchy things.
But, if we're going to drill down into the ethics of crypto startups, I think they come out looking pretty good in comparison.
It's worth noting that the author of this post works at Hubspot which literally had an entire book written about how its workplace culture was highly discriminatory, particularly against older workers.("Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble ")
Engineers in glass houses....
The others are regularly criticised to varying degrees, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to work there for people somewhat conscious of their conscience. It comes down to the question “can you honestly expect to have an impact on the organisation, or is it more likely to hollow you out and make you into another one of their cynical libertarian defenders?”
This happens to be exactly the same misunderstanding as calling all criticism “cancel culture”.
Disclaimer: I worked at Uber in the past
I have multiple friends that have worked for major bitcoin/eth companies. You definitely know the names of these companies. My friends found themselves in exactly the situation I describe. Neither of them were "true believers" in the advocate sense. They just thought the technology was interesting, the team was good, etc.
But the problem is the loudest advocates in the crypto space are frankly, so insane, that even a vague signal you might be part of that group is a huge red flag for any business that is not all in on crypto. Hiring one of these people could be incredibly destructive to a team.