Crypto billionaire: Story of Brian Armstrong

For a long time now, we have been surrounded by virtual currencies and the rate at which its uses cases in day-to-day life are increasing is something that was never really anticipated and one of the major contributors to this huge success is the cryptocurrency industry.

The crypto world has been more than successful in luring in potential investors from all across the globe and has managed to make a name for itself in the global marketplace as well. Not just that, the said industry has had a surge in its overall growth and popularity recently, thus helping it to reach greater heights!

Having said that, I believe, most of you must already be aware of the basics of the industry but, if for some reason that is still not the case, let me help you with that first. To begin with, cryptocurrency is nothing but a form of virtual or online currency which can easily be used for a variety of purposes including the purchase and sale of goods and services as well as for the purpose of trade and exchange over cryptocurrency exchanges available online.

In technical terms, Crypto is a decentralized blockchain-based platform, which being decentralized is able to step outside the overall control and jurisdiction of central authorities and can work freely without any unnecessary government interference as well.

In addition to this, we all know by now that the crypto world has come a long way since when it all first started and unlike its initial years in the marketplace, there are pools of currencies available today in the marketplace to choose from, with newer ones coming in with each passing day and tons of new investors joining in every hour.

However, one of the most popular and prominent cryptocurrency exchanges out there, that I am sure you must all have already heard of is the Coinbase Exchange. Even though some of you might have heard of Coinbase, I sincerely doubt that a majority of you are familiar with the man behind this global success, Brian Armstrong. If so, let’s have a look at the life story of the co-founder and CEO of one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the world, Coinbase.

Everything to know about Brian Armstrong

Armstrong was born on January 25, 1983, near San Jose, California and both his parents were engineers. Brian is known to have attended Rice University in Texas and earned a dual bachelor’s degree in computer science as well as economics in 2005, followed by a master’s degree in computer science in 2006.   

While at Rice, Armstrong started a business matching students to tutors, and after graduating, he spent a year in Buenos Aires while working for an education company. Speaking of his early life, it is probably worth noting that, Brian Armstrong’s early career included working as a consultant at Deloitte and a developer for IBM.

In about 2010, he came across the Bitcoin white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto, and in 2011, he decided to join Airbnb as a software engineer. While working there, Armstrong was exposed to payment systems of all 190 countries that Airbnb was operating in back then and he saw the struggles of sending money to South America.

Having said that, he began working nights and weekends in order to write code in JavaScript and Ruby to buy and store cryptocurrencies. In about 2012, Brian managed to enter Y Combinator start-up accelerator and received a 150,000 US dollar investment, which he used to fund his very own project, Coinbase.

In 2012 itself, Armstrong along with Fred Ehrsam co-founded Coinbase as simply a way for crypto enthusiasts to trade Bitcoin, it being the largest and most popular currency at that time, and other virtual currencies as well. Apart from just being the co-founder of Coinbase Global, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Brian Armstrong is also known to be the CEO of the same.

As mentioned, Brian Armstrong is one of the most popular faces of cryptocurrencies in the United States. He introduced Coinbase in 2012 with the hope of it becoming a major trade option for investors in the crypto marketplace. However, it wasn’t long before crypto trading took off, thus allowing Coinbase to grow into the company and a platform that we know it to be today.

Coinbase is one such platform that has witnessed about 320 billion dollars worth of virtual assets traded from nearly 56 million users around the globe. Also, it is worth noting that, Coinbase’s success story is the reason which managed to turn Armstrong into one of the wealthiest people in the entire fintech industry with a net worth of nearly 12.6 billion dollars.

On a similar note, Co-founder Fred Ehrsam is said to have left the company back in 2017 but still owns nearly six percent and serves on the board of directors, after becoming a billionaire of course! Speaking of stakes, according to a report by Forbes, Armstrong is known to own about 19 percent of Coinbase, which earned nearly 322 million dollars in profit on a 1.3 billion revenue in 2020. Not just that, Coinbase went public in a direct offering by Nasdaq on April 14, 2021, with a market capitalization of about 100 billion dollars.

Since it all comes down to Coinbase and its success, before moving any further, it is best if we first have a brief look at what it is in order for you to have a much better understanding. To begin with, Coinbase is simply a secure online platform for selling, transferring, buying as well as storing virtual currencies.

As per the platform’s official website, their mission is to create an open financial system for the world and to become the leading global brand for helping people convert virtual currencies into and out of their local currencies.

In addition to this, the said platform is able to do this and more with over a hundred tradable cryptocurrencies including some of the most popular ones in the marketplace like Ethereum, Dogecoin, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Baby Doge, as well as EverGrow Coin to name just a few of course. Also, as talked about previously, Coinbase has managed to become a large company with over 255 billion dollars in assets as well as 73 million users on the platform.

Other than this, beginners might prefer the original Coinbase platform for simply purchasing and selling orders but, more advanced users can also have access to some additional features and order types with the help of Coinbase Pro, which is available to any Coinbase user.

Furthermore, the company has grown to support dozens of different virtual currencies and has more than 2700 employees all across the globe, helping it to run smoothly and efficiently. Know that, Coinbase is a decentralized company with no main headquarters but still manages a robust crypto ecosystem supporting 9000 financial institutions worldwide.

Basically, one of the most important reasons for Coinbase being such a huge success is that, it acts as a tool where crypto investors globally can manage all of their virtual assets in just a single platform, specifically allowing users to buy and sell multiple currencies.

Additionally, you should be aware that, Coinbase also lets users track their investment and help them schedule recurring purchases, whether it be monthly, weekly, or daily for that matter. Lastly, Coinbase is available for both Android and IOS devices and can be used on the web as well.

Now that you have a brief backstory about Coinbase, let us come back to the topic in order to discuss the life story of the man behind it all, Brian Armstrong. When Coinbase was made public, Brian said in an interview with Clubhouse app that, “(The listing) feels like a shift in legitimacy not just for Coinbase but the whole industry”.

Moving further, Coinbase’s revenue has amounted to nearly 1.14 billion dollars in 2020, which is by far the highest the company has been able to generate since its inception. Though Armstrong was a billionaire after Coinbase attained an eight-billion-dollar valuation back in 2018, he said: “he is continually reminded of how his company managed to overcome early struggles, launching Coinbase from a two-bedroom apartment that was shared with another company”.

Lastly, it is probably worth noting that, Brian Armstrong’s entrepreneurial success has been able to earn him a prestigious spot in the 2017 Forbes 40 under 40, at a mere age of 34, and is currently listed as #1 in the 2021 Forbes Crypto rich list.

Reading so far, I hope you must have gotten a fair insight into the life of one of the most influential names in the crypto world and his success story and I believe, now you’ll be able to decide on your own whether or not you should use Coinbase Exchange as your way to deal with the world of cryptocurrencies.

With virtual currencies still on the rise, Coinbase and Brian Armstrong are on the rise as well and as more and more investors are looking at cryptocurrencies to simply expand their portfolio, it would not be wrong to expect Armstrong to lead the charge in making sure that these investors choose Coinbase at the end of the day!

However, the crypto industry is a highly volatile place which means that it is not always possible to predict the price changes and act accordingly as the price fluctuations in the crypto marketplace are almost immediate, thus leaving no time to plan.

Therefore, whenever dealing in online currencies, keep in mind that, if the industry is providing you with an opportunity to earn huge profits and make quick money, if not done right, you could also end up having significantly huge losses as well. So, you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.

In conclusion, what are your thoughts on Coinbase and the life story of Brian Armstrong? Do let us know in the comments area below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!

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