What is Brian Armstrong's Net Worth?
Brian Armstrong is an American technology executive who has a net worth of $14 billion. Brian Armstrong earned his fortune as the co-founder of Coinbase. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the United States.
Brian owns 39.6 million shares of Coinbase. At his absolute peak, not long after the Coinbase IPO, Brian Armstrong's net worth was $20 billion. Over the next 1+ year, Coin's stock dropped 90% and his net worth plummeted to below $2 billion. And then it climbed back up! By late 2023 Armstrong's net worth was back in the $3.4 billion range. By late-2024, it was back above $14 billion.
Early Life and Education
Brian Armstrong was born on January 24, 1983 in San Jose, California. His parents are both engineers. Brian attended Rice University in Texas where he earned a Bachelor's degree in computer science and economics. He then followed with a master's degree in computer science, graduating in 2006.
Career
One of his first jobs after school was working as a developer at IBM. He also spent some time working as a consultant at Deloitte.
In 2011 he joined Airbnb. During his one year at Airbnb he worked on the company's global payment processing systems.
Coinbase
At some point, Brian came across the original Bitcoin whitepaper authored by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. He immediately began mining his own personal coins. He soon had a larger revelation that the world needed an easier way to buy and sell digital currency. At the time, he described buying and selling Bitcoin as "unusable" to the average person.
In 2012 Brian used $150,000 in startup capital from Y Combinator to found a company he named Coinbase. He technically co-founded Coinbase with Fred Ehrsam who served as company President to Armstrong's CEO. The two originally met in the Bitcoin subreddit.
(Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images)
In 2013 Coinbase raised $25 million in a Series B funding round that included Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and QueensBridge Venture Partners (which was co-founded by rapper Nas). The Series B round valued Coinbase at $143 million. At the time the price of a single Bitcoin was $130.
Fast forward to 2018 and the company was valued at $8.1 billion.
Immediately before going public in April 2021, Coinbase's private valuation was $65 billion. At the time, a single Bitcoin sold for $63,000.
Coinbase debuted on the NASDAQ in the afternoon of April 14, 2021. A day before the expected price per share was $250. Coinbase ended up debuting at $381. At that level the company's market cap was $100 billion, giving Brian Armstrong a net worth of $20 billion which was enough to make him one of the 100 richest people in the world. In the days that followed, his net worth dropped to $13 billion. Over the next two years his net worth dropped 90%.
Stock Holdings and Salary
Armstrong owns 20% of of Coinbase, roughly 39.6 million shares.
According to the company's IPO filings, Armstrong earned $59.5 million in total compensation in 2020. His base salary is $1 million.
Philanthropy
In 2018 Brian signed The Giving Pledge, indicating his intention to donate the majority of his fortune to charity during his lifetime or at his death. He subsequently founded GiveCrypto.org, a platform that aims to make it easier for people to make crypto donations.
