'Bitcoin Is My First Love': Coinbase CEO Champions Top Coin on Its 10th Birthday

Brian Armstrong, founder and CEO of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has confessed that “Bitcoin is my first love” in a series of tweets commemorating the coin’s 10th birthday, Jan. 3.

Summing up a thread in which he explained how he entered the industry and built one of its most successful firms, Armstrong wrote:

“Bitcoin is one of the most important inventions of all time and has launched a global movement. It's awesome to see an entire ecosystem spring up around it, but Bitcoin is my first love.”

Armstrong pointed out that Bitcoin is still the most popular asset both for new Coinbase customers and long-time hodlers. The firm’s CEO also tweeted about cryptocurrency’s future potential. As per Armstrong, the industry is only starting to develop:

“I believe we’re still at the beginning. The white paper signaled the start of a movement and the full promise of Bitcoin is still yet to be realized.”

In addition to that, the Coinbase co-founder briefly recounted the founding story of the major exchange, revealing that he first read Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper in 2010 and was thinking of it for the next six months.

As of press time, Coinbase’s professional trading platform is the world’s 30th largest crypto exchange by adjusted daily trade volume with, seeing $85.4 million in trades on the day to press time.

The Bitcoin whitepaper was released on Oct. 31, 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin whose identity has yet to be revealed. Yesterday, Jan. 3, marked ten years since the creation of the very first block, known as “genesis block,” on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Bitcoin’s anniversary this year was also marked by an event dubbed “Proof of Keys” — when crypto holders were encouraged to withdraw their funds from all exchanges and other third-party mediators to prove their control over their funds.