Brian Armstrong is an American billionaire, business executive, and investor. Born on January 25, 1983, in California, US, he is the CEO and co-founder of the world’s most trusted cryptocurrency exchange. Armstrong founded the company in 2012 with the motive to make the crypto economy more fair, transparent, and accessible. He is a cryptocurrency enthusiast trading various digital currencies from an early age.
Brian Armstrong completed his high school at Bellarmine College Preparatory, a private secondary school. He earned a dual bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science in 2005 from Rice University in Texas, followed by a master’s in computer science in 2006. While studying at Rice University, he ran a business that connected tutors with students. As a fresh graduate, he worked with an education company for around one year.
In 2003, during his time at Rice University, Armstrong established his first venture namedUniveristyTutor(dot)com. The website connected independent instructors, parents, and students over a single network. He worked with UniveristyTutor(dot)com till 2012 and the venture was acquired by Johnson Educational Technologies LLC in 2014. He also worked at IBM as a developer and as a consultant at Deloitte. As a software engineer, he joined Airbnb in the year 2011 and was exposed to the payment system in around 190 countries in which the company was operating at that time.
Year 2012 completely changed Brian Armstrong’s life when he founded the Y Combinator startup and generated around $150,000 which was used to fund Coinbase. In the same year, Brian and Fred Ehrsam co-founded Coinbase which eventually turned into one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the US. Armstrong was the first CEO of Coinbase and the exchange filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public through a direct listing.
Coinbase aims to offer more accessible, reliable, and secure exchange services. The platform has around 73 Million verified users, around 18,000 ecosystem partners, and 10,000 institutions in more than 100 nations. The net worth of Coinbase as of June 20, 2023, is around $16.78 Billion and it is expected to reach $400 by the end of 2025. A high level of security and accessibility makes Coinbase one of the most popular options for long-term investors. Currently, the exchange is embroiled in a lawsuit with the SEC, which has been on an enforcement spree in the crypto sector.