flâneur

David Senra: Brian Armstrong, Coinbase

davidsenra.com · 23,962 words · saved by 1 readers

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange and one of the most recognized names in the digital asset industry. Armstrong founded Coinbase in 2012 alongside Fred Ehrsam, launching out of Y Combinator with a simple but ambitious goal: to make Bitcoin easy to buy, sell, and store for everyday people. At a time when acquiring cryptocurrency required navigating technically complex and often unreliable platforms, Coinbase offered a clean, accessible interface that brought mainstream users into the space for the first time. Under Armstrong's leadership, Coinbase grew from a consumer-focused Bitcoin wallet into a sprawling financial infrastructure company serving retail investors, institutional clients, and developers. The company expanded to include a professional trading platform, a self-custody wallet, a layer-2 blockchain called Base, and a suite of developer APIs. In April 2021, Coinbase became the first major cryptocurrency exchange to go public in the United States, listing directly on Nasdaq in a landmark moment for the broader crypto industry. Armstrong has been one of the most vocal advocates for bringing cryptocurrency i

David Senra: How much of your job is building political power as an advocate for the crypto industry? Brian Armstrong: Yeah, I mean, I don't have to go, but I think it's worth it for the business. I don't mind going. In some ways, I like doing it. There's some pretty interesting people there. So I go about once a quarter, maybe once or twice a quarter recently, because we're right at the crux of this key moment for market structure legislation. But I'd say over the last few years, yeah, about once a quarter. David Senra: What's the key moment for the market structure? Brian Armstrong: Well,…

related reading