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.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team