Brian Armstrong is faithful to his woman and his crypto exchange
If we compare business to an RPG game, where each character has a certain role, then Brian Armstrong is a tank. But on soft tracks.
Having chosen a target, he moves towards it, carrying the whole team. He is merciful to his enemies and has never been noticed in foul games.
Armstrong has set an ambitious goal of turning Coinbase into the “Google of crypto” and he is standing his ground. Right now Coinbase is the most popular crypto exchange in the USA. It has more active accounts than Charles Schwab's largest stock exchange, Charles Schwab & Co.
Brian co-founded Coinbase in June 2012 and has since been responsible for product development and regulatory relations at the company. Armstrong leads a team of 300 employees, serving over 73 million users, 10,000 entities, and 18,000 partners all over the world.
The exchange received over $200 million in funding from venture capital investors:
- Andreessen Horowitz;
- IVP venture fund;
- Union Square Ventures investment company;
- Draper Fisher Jurvetson, founded by Tim Draper;
- NYSE stock exchange.
At the time of writing the exchange is valued at around $14 billion. In 2021 valuation reached $100 billion. The price of its stock directly correlates with the price of digital assets.
Ten facts about Brian Armstrong
1. Brian is 40 years old. He was born on January 25, 1983, in California.
2. He went to Rice University, Texas, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in computer science.
3. He worked as a developer at IBM and as a programmer at the booking company Airbnb. He specialized in international payment systems.
4. He received money to launch Coinbase after having his project idea accepted by the Y Combinator startup accelerator. It was a $150,000 check, a huge sum at that time.
5. He was looking for a partner to launch a crypto exchange on Reddit. He held all the interviews with applicants in an ordinary bistro. Former trader Fred Ehrsam became his partner.
6. He leads all his social media and communicates with subscribers by himself. He has more than 1 million followers on Twitter. But to tell the truth, he rarely publishes new posts.
7. Brian has never been noticed in hype and disinformation spreading. He has an assistant, who fact-checks all the news on financial markets.
8. He always acts with a cool head – analyzes the situation and calculates the risks.
9. He owns 19% of Coinbase's shares.
10. He was named in Fortune's “40 Under 40” as America's most prominent crypto educator.
Brian Armstrong's net worth as of the end of 2022 is estimated at $6.6 billion. He is one of the 100 richest people in the USA.
Why is Coinbase CEO called a Tank on rubber tracks?
According to his colleagues, acquaintances, and friends, Brian has a calm character. His steel will is offset by softness in dealing with others. He shows nobility and delicacy unusual for the crypto world even to competitors. Sometimes people compare him to Vitalik Buterin, who also does not love attention and is obsessed with his work. It is not surprising that they are similar because both of them are Aquarius.
Brian Armstrong founded a crypto charity fund called GiveCrypto.org. and was the first cryptocurrency executive to sign the so-called “Giving Pledge” in 2018. He promised to give away the bulk of his wealth to charitable causes. This pledge is mandatory and officially notarized. Besides that, Armstrong pledged to donate 1% of the exchange's profits and working time to crypto charities.
The CEO of the largest CEX did not go after his partner and co-founder Fred Ehrsam when it came out that the latter was involved in insider trading. Old friends parted their ways peacefully: Fred left the project, but still owns 6% of the company's shares and receives dividends.
Brian is an eligible bachelor. But for more than ten years he has been faithful to his woman, whom he has known since his student days. It appears that billionaire’s fans cannot destroy their love. According to Armstrong, he is monogamous both in relation to projects and in relation to women.
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