Coinbase CEO Takes the Stage at Goldman Sachs Summit - U.Today

• Armstrong’s background
• Struggling to raise $1 million
• The current state of Coinbase Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently made an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit, where he discussed his journey as well as the current state of the industry

Armstrong’s background

Armstrong recalled that he was passionate about computer science as a kid, which is why he chose to pursue computer science

“My mom was a programmer at IBM. My dad was a civil engineer. I remember getting our first IBM 486 PC at home, and I loved it,” he said

Armstrong recalled that he was learning how to use Linux and how to build early websites

“When I was in high school, I ended up taking some programming classes at a community college. When I went to college, I decided to study computer science,” he recalled

Struggling to raise $1 million

He stated that Coinbase was not a “hot” company during the demo day at the YCombinator event. “It seemed like all these other startups were raising checks…I was trying to raise just $1 million…I was only able to get only $600K,” he said

Armstrong revealed that he was “lucky enough” to run into a former FX trader at Goldman Sachs. That trader was Fred Ershem, who ended up co-founding the exchange with Armstrong

The current state of Coinbase

As of today, as Armstrong recalls, Coinbase is now serving both retail customers and large institutions. “We also have a developer platform, so we are building infrastructure,” he said.

The Coinbase boss believes that prediction markets and tokenized equities are the most promising areas as of now

He has discussed the potential of prediction markets to inform policy decisions and the benefits of tokenizing stocks, such as increased accessibility and 24/7 trading.