Who is Brian Armstrong? Six Facts About the Coinbase CEO

Brian Armstrong and Coinbase

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. As a leader of the major cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase is the first major publicly traded cryptocurrency company, and its listing on the NASDAQ in April 2021 was a significant milestone for the industry.

Coinbase holds one of the most significant amounts of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its customers. The exact amount of Bitcoin held by Coinbase is not publicly available, and it is difficult to compare its holdings with those of other exchanges or institutions. But what is certain is that Coinbase is one of the strongest and most powerful cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.

As the leader and public face of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong’s opinions and comments hold powerful sway. But who is Armstrong? Where is he from? What’s his background?

We’ll take a quick look at these answers and a few more quick facts below! Let’s go!

Six Facts About Brian Armstrong

1. Armstrong was born in San Jose, California––Silicon Valley. He went to Bellarmine Prep before attending Rice University in Houston, Texas. He graduated with a double Bachelor’s in economics and computer science in 2005 plus a Master’s in Computer Science.

2. He founded Coinbase in 2012 with Fred Ehrsam, with the goal of making it easy to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

3. Prior to founding Coinbase, Armstrong worked as a software engineer at Airbnb and quit after receiving a $150,000 cheque after having his project idea accepted by the famed Y Combinator startup accelerator.

4. Armstrong is an advocate for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and has spoken about their potential to transform the financial industry.

5. He has topped Forbes’ Richest Crypto List, been named in Fortune’s ‘40 under 40’ in 2017 and Time Magazine’s ‘Next 100’ in 2019 while also landing #60 on Forbes’ ‘100 Most Influential Americans’ in 2021.

6. Armstrong believes more open-source software is the one thing needed to help accelerate progress in science.