Brian Armstrong

Armstrong holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Economics and an M.S. in Computer Science from Rice University.⁠[1][2]

From August 2003, Armstrong founded and ran the online tutoring directory Universitytutor.com, serving as its Chief Executive Officer until May 2012; the site was acquired in 2014.⁠[1][3]

From July to November 2005, Armstrong worked as a consultant in the enterprise risk management division of Deloitte & Touche.⁠[1]

From May 2011 to June 2012, Armstrong worked as a software engineer at the home-sharing platform Airbnb.⁠[1]

In May 2012, Armstrong founded Coinbase and has served as its Chief Executive Officer and a director since its inception. The company was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 batch, founded on the idea that anyone, anywhere should be able to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin. Co-founder Fred Ehrsam served as the company’s President from November 2012 to January 2017 and has been a director since March 2013.⁠[1][4][5][1][1]

In January 2020, Armstrong founded the scientific research development platform ResearchHub Technologies and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and a director. ResearchHub features open peer review and transparent funding. Coinbase later listed his outside activities, including serving as ResearchHub’s Chief Executive Officer, in its listing documents as a risk that could divert his attention.⁠[1][6][6][5]

In February 2021, Armstrong became Chairman of Coinbase. On the 25th of that month, Coinbase filed its registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that the company’s mission is to create an open financial system for the world; the company adopted a dual-class share structure, with one vote per Class A share and twenty votes per Class B share.⁠[1][5][5]

On April 14, 2021, Coinbase listed its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market through a direct listing, under the symbol COIN. In May 2021, Armstrong and his affiliated entities obtained a majority of the company’s voting power, making Coinbase a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules.⁠[7][8][1][1]

In December 2021, Armstrong co-founded the healthcare research company NewLimit, where he is an investor and a director. Building on epigenetic reprogramming, NewLimit develops medicines to restore the function of aging cells and extend healthy lifespan, with initial programs focused on the liver, the immune system, and the vasculature.⁠[1][9][9]

On June 14, 2022, Coinbase announced a restructuring in response to market conditions, cutting about 1,100 jobs, roughly 18% of its global workforce, leaving about 5,000 employees.⁠[10][10]

On June 6, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that it operated its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency, and that its staking service was an unregistered offer of securities. On March 27, 2024, the court denied Coinbase’s motion with respect to the claims concerning its trading platform, Prime, and staking services, but granted its motion concerning the Wallet application.⁠[11][11][12][12][12]

Coinbase developed Base, an open-source, permissionless Ethereum layer 2 network that gives developers access to the Coinbase ecosystem. In August 2023, a number of fraudulent tokens were traded on Base; the company said it would continue investing in improving its security processes, including its in-house blockchain monitoring capabilities.⁠[13][13][13][13]

In December 2023, Coinbase, together with other crypto industry participants, supported the launch of the Fairshake Political Action Committee, which supports candidates favorable to crypto and blockchain innovation and opposes those who are not.⁠[8][8]

On February 21, 2025, Coinbase announced that it had reached an agreement in principle with the SEC staff to dismiss the litigation with prejudice, and said it would post related information on channels including the company blog and Armstrong’s X account. On February 27, the SEC announced that it had filed a joint stipulation of dismissal with Coinbase, saying the decision was made to support the Crypto Task Force formed that January in developing a regulatory framework and was not based on any assessment of the merits of the claims.⁠[12][12][14][14][14]

On May 8, 2025, Coinbase signed an agreement to acquire the crypto derivatives exchange Deribit for $700 million in cash plus about 11 million shares of Class A stock.⁠[15][15]

On the 11th of that month, Coinbase received an extortion email from an unknown attacker. The attacker had paid off multiple contractors and employees working in customer support outside the United States and stolen some customers’ names, addresses, government ID images, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, and account data, but did not obtain passwords or private keys and could not access customer funds. The company refused to pay the ransom, said it would reimburse eligible retail customers who were defrauded as a result, and would open a new support hub in the United States, initially estimating the related costs at $180 million to $400 million.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16]

On August 14, 2025, Coinbase completed its acquisition of Deribit for total consideration of about $4.3 billion, describing the deal as key to its goal of becoming the premier global platform for crypto derivatives. On October 8 of that year, Coinbase also acquired Echo with stock.⁠[8][8][8][8]

In 2025, Coinbase had net revenue of $6.9 billion and net income of $1.3 billion, with 4,951 employees at year-end; the company is remote-first and does not maintain a headquarters.⁠[1][8][8]

On March 1, 2026, David Senra’s eponymous podcast released an episode of his conversation with Armstrong.⁠[17][17]

On May 5, 2026, Coinbase announced a restructuring to control operating expenses and “optimize the Company’s operations for the AI era,” cutting about 700 jobs, roughly 14% of its global workforce.⁠[18][18][18]

Armstrong has collected his writings on his personal website, including “How Digital Currency Will Change The World” and “The Coinbase Secret Master Plan” from 2016, “The Coinbase Seed Round Pitch Deck” and “What CEOs Do” from 2017, “How we make decisions at Coinbase” from 2018, “Coinbase is a mission focused company” from 2020, and “Crypto startups I would start today” from 2023. The long-form interviews he lists include the Lex Fridman Podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, and All-In in 2022, as well as Cheeky Pint and No Priors in 2025–2026.⁠[19][19][19][19][19][20][20][20][20][20]

Coinbase: Official website: https://www.coinbase.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

ResearchHub: Official website: https://www.researchhub.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

NewLimit: Official website: https://www.newlimit.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]

Personal website: https://www.brianarmstrong.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[22]

X: Public account: https://x.com/brian_armstrong (opens in a new window)⁠[22]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barmstrong (opens in a new window)⁠[22]

GitHub: Public account: https://github.com/barmstrong (opens in a new window)⁠[22]