At the helm of Coinbase since founding it with Fred Ehrsam in 2012, Brian Armstrong has weathered rough storms of compliance law to operate the largest crypto exchange active in the United States. Both Coinbase’s stature within the industry and Armstrong’s extracurricular activities moving adoption and regulation forward — particularly within the U.S. — have ensured his position in Cointelegraph’s top 10. Major changes at Coinbase in 2019 set the stage for 2020 As the exchange is not publicly traded, evaluating it is tricky. At the end of October 2018, Coinbase announced a massive $300 million funding round that put …
Coinbase has expanded compatibility for its trading platform, Coinbase Pro. The Coinbase Pro mobile app is now available on Android’s operating system, Coinbase said in a Jan. 7 blog announcement. The exchange unveiled its Pro app for iPhone (iOS) users in October 2019. Coinbase Pro on Android touts updates to the already-available iOS app version, including crypto and fiat currency (USD, CAD, etc.) deposit and withdrawal capabilities, as well as additional security features, the blog post said. Coinbase has also updated its Pro iOS app to include these capabilities. Controversy surrounding DApps Decentralized applications (DApps), however, may suffer in the …
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong published a Medium post on Jan. 2 sharing his thoughts on how the crypto space has progressed over the last ten years. Armstrong’s post, inspired by Fred Wilson’s article on technology over the past decade, begins with Bitcoin. Armstrong noted that the leading cryptocurrency hasn’t failed once in its birth ten-year history. Despite any doubt about Bitcoin’s survival, Armstrong pointed out that the digital currency has actually thrived. “There were over 379 articles written, prematurely declaring the end of Bitcoin. Not only did Bitcoin survive, it thrived, becoming the top performing asset of the decade. The …
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has shared a list of instructors for its free, seven-week crypto startup school, scheduled to launch in February 2020. On Dec. 11, the venture capital firm announced that experienced entrepreneurs, builders, investors and experts in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry will coach students by sharing lessons they’ve learned, bring new project ideas, and share information to help them get started in the cryptoverse. The list of crypto startup school instructors includes top entrepreneurs and technologists like general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Chris Dixon, professor of computer science at Stanford University Dan Boneh, and Brian …
At Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that Coinbase has generated close to $2 billion in trading fees since it launched in 2012. On Oct. 23, the co-founder and CEO of major United States cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Coinbase told Vanity Fair that technology has always been the focus of Coinbase, which, in part, is the reason why the company has remained profitable. Coinbase has been profitable since 2017 and has generated close to $2 billion in trading commissions since the company launched back in 2012. Armstrong added: “Most of these profits we’re plowing back …
Brian Armstrong, CEO of major American crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase, believes that the firm will be less about trading and more about adoption five years from now. Armstrong wants the firm to connect people in crypto industry In an AMA session on July 19, Armstrong presented his vision of the company in five years, claiming that he sees Coinbase as not just a crypto trading service provider, but rather a more universal entity driving adoption to crypto. Armstrong pointed out Coinbase’s mission to help grow the global crypto economy by connecting people in the market and expanding crypto …
Co-founder and CEO of major U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Brian Armstrong attracted criticism after praising private crypto transactions in a tweet published on June 22. In the aforementioned tweet, Armstrong notes that “a scalable, sufficiently decentralized, chain that supported private transactions by default (privacy coins) would be a game changer.” He then compares anonymous cryptocurrency transactions to cryptography on the web, pointing out that it is increasingly predominant. He also used messaging as an example: “Same with messaging, end to end encryption started out fringe and is now the expected default.” Armstrong also cited the recent news about the Electric …
Tim Plakas has left the major United States crypto exchange Coinbase to join the cryptocurrency bank founded by Michael Novogratz, Galaxy Digital, an anonymous source purportedly told The Block on May 28. Plakas’ departure follows four senior executive departures from Coinbase in approximately the last seven months. Plakas reportedly held the position of over-the-counter (OTC) trading head at Coinbase from July 2018 to January 2019, and will be joining the OTC team at Galaxy Digital. Novogratz’s crypto bank is a member of Crypto OTC Roundtable Asia (CORA) Network, a non-profit collective of companies that want to improve the Crypto OTC …
Brian Armstrong, CEO of major United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, believes that crypto mass adoption mostly depends on volatility, scalability and usability. Armstrong made his claim during a live ask-me-anything (AMA) session on April 2. Armstrong ran the 45-minute AMA on Tuesday, answering selected questions submitted by the crypto community. Addressing the first question, on the potential for mass crypto adoption, Coinbase’s CEO said that a cryptocurrency can achieve mass adoption by improving scalability and usability, while reducing volatility. As per volatility, if the crypto markets keep swinging dramatically, it will be hard to get more traditional investors involved, Armstrong …
The CEO of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase added to theories surrounding the downfall of Canadian platform QuadrigaCX in fresh social media comments on Feb. 21. In a series of tweets, Brian Armstrong suggested the exchange, which is currently undergoing restructuring procedures and owes creditors around $190 million, did not attempt fraud. “(QuadrigaCX) was one of the oldest exchanges in existence (founded in 2013). If they planned an exit scam, it likely would have been timed better,” he summarized. Users of the now-defunct Quadriga are currently battling through the courts to secure missing funds. The exact circumstances under which their …
Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of United States crypto exchange and wallet Coinbase, has outlined what he believes to be four common misconceptions about crypto custody solutions. His article was published on Fortune’s crypto-focused segment The Ledger on Feb. 22. Cold storage refers to a method of keeping crypto holdings and users’ private keys offline in order to safeguard against theft via a remote attack. Hot storage, conversely, refers to storage on a device that has an active connection to the internet. Armstrong’s first argument tackles the perception that hot storage is always necessary to provide the flexibility and speed …
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 …