Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase — The Art of Relentless Focus, Preparing for Full-Contact Entrepreneurship, Critical Forks in the Path, Handling Haters, The Wisdom of Paul Graham, Epigenetic Reprogramming, and Much More | Brought to you by ShipStation shipping software, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase. Founded in 2012, Coinbase is building the crypto economy—a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto. Coinbase serves over 103 million verified users, 14,500 institutions, and 245,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. In April 2021, Coinbase listed publicly on NASDAQ as COIN. Before founding Coinbase, Brian served as a software engineer at Airbnb, where he focused on fraud prevention. Before Airbnb, Brian founded and was CEO of UniversityTutor.com, an online tutoring directory and a subsidiary of Johnson Educational Technologies LLC. Brian also previously served as a consultant for the enterprise risk management division at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Brian has a BA in computer science and economics and an MS in computer science from Rice University.Over the last three years, Coinbase has worked with ten-time Emmy®-winning filmmaker Greg Kohs on a documentary about cryptocurrency and Coinbase. COIN is now available on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo on Demand, and other platforms.Please enjoy!*This episode is brought to you by ShipStation! ShipStation integrates with every widely used platform—including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, etc.—making it easy to manage all your shipping from one simple dashboard. Save time with consolidated order management and automated shipping updates for your customers. Easily compare carriers, rates, and delivery times to get the most out of every send. And get the same discounted shipping rates as Fortune 500 companies, whether you‘re sending a stack or a truckful.98% of companies that use ShipStation for one year become customers for life, so join the 130,000+ companies who have grown their ecommerce businesses with ShipStation. Go to ShipStation.com today and sign up with promo code TIM for a FREE 60-day trial. Get set up before the biggest shipping season of the year, and get 2 months FREE when you visit ShipStation.com. Just click the microphone at the top and type in code TIM.*This episode is also brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the #1 overall mattress of 2020 by GQ magazine, Wired, Apartment Therapy, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and five free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive all-in-one daily greens product.*[05:46] How Brian’s first book idea became a blog.[07:21] Brian’s time in Buenos Aires.[13:39] Present-day economic warning signs.[16:13] Coinbase beginnings: from genesis to the Buy Bitcoin button.[20:35] Influential human beings, books, and documentaries.[23:15] Core principles learned from early startup days.[26:39] Favorite Paul Graham essays.[28:12] Controversy: Coinbase becomes an apolitical, mission-focused company.[37:11] Cultivating resilience to resistance as a leader.[44:57] Competition.[46:51] What crypto skeptics and crypto bulls each get wrong often.[49:30] Main use cases for crypto.[50:18] Making the case that crypto is still in early days.[54:55] Novel crypto ideas Brian thinks will prove worthwhile.[59:57] Lessons learned from the launch of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.[1:03:44] How Coinbase is addressing NFT security.[1:05:34] “Not your keys, not your crypto.”[1:10:56] Self-improvement.[1:14:14] Learning biology basics from a tutor as an adult.[1:20:03] The goals of NewLimit.[1:27:32] What is ResearchHub?[1:31:41] How open bounties work.[1:33:25] What excites Brian most about science today?[1:36:52] Brian’s billboard.[1:38:24] Parting thoughts.*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brian Armstrong is the CEO of Coinbase. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Audible: https://audible.com/lex – Skiff: https://skiff.org/lex – BiOptimizers: http://www.magbreakthrough.com/lex to get 10% off – Fundrise: https://fundrise.com/lex – Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil EPISODE LINKS: Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong Brian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian_armstrong Coinbase’s Website: https://www.coinbase.com ResearchHub: https://www.researchhub.com NewLimit: https://www.newlimit.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (08:19) – Programming (14:17) – Coinbase (45:05) – Startup advice (1:02:56) – Economic freedom (1:12:06) – Coinbase technology (1:23:33) – Listing on Coinbase (1:32:47) – Regulations (1:47:25) – Crypto dominance (1:51:42) – Employee activism (2:08:00) – Leadership (2:10:39) – ResearchHub (2:20:17) – NewLimit (2:24:44) – Advice for young people (2:28:55) – Meaning of life

(0:00) New bestie game show! (6:20) Election recap: Red wave falls flat, Republican party flips from Trump to DeSantis, a rebuke of extremism (20:47) Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong joins to break down the FTX collapse, further contagion risk, regulation, and more! (43:32) Red flags exhibited by Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, lack of governance/diligence (1:06:00) Macroeconomic picture, lower than expected CPI print catalyzes market tear, advice for founders Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/us/politics/biden-ukraine-russia-diplomacy.html https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-11668176869 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-11/summers-says-ftx-meltdown-has-whiffs-of-enron-like-scandal https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-joe-biden-democratic-party-second-biggest-donor https://web.archive.org/web/20221109230422/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight https://twitter.com/GordonJohnson19/status/1591062535586848768

Brian is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, a company thats reached highs of a valuation of $100 billion. After an adolescence and youth searching for independence where no one could be his boss, he’s come a long way, but he’s realised he’s had to change a lot too.Before anyone had heard of Bitcoin, there was Coinbase. Taking a punt on an industry no one knew and no one understood, Brian quit his lucrative career to be his own man. No one encouraged him. No one. He’d told the idea to hundreds of people before someone told him it could work.In this conversation, Brian brought a wisdom and a nuance about how to run and build a business like very few conversations we’ve had on this podcast. If you want to know how the best in the world take an idea from drawboard to $100 billion, this is the story of how it happened.Follow Brian: Twitter - https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong Follow me:https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, dives into the evolution of crypto and the challenges in today’s regulatory environment. He shares insights on product innovation and the importance of engaging with policymakers to bolster crypto adoption. Armstrong also discusses the launch of Farcaster Frames, linking it to broader social transaction innovations. With a nod to the role of cryptocurrency in decentralizing society, he emphasizes the need for advocacy and the transformative potential of biotech on economic freedom.

Brian Armstrong wanted to be a tech entrepreneur since he was in high school, but his first serious venture—a tutoring website—never quite took off. Around 2010, while looking to get a job in Silicon Valley, he stumbled across an intriguing idea for a peer-to-peer digital currency called Bitcoin, which quickly turned into his obsession. Brian's initial prototype for a hosted Bitcoin wallet got him accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator program, and he launched Coinbase soon thereafter. Many experts warned that cryptocurrency was no more reliable than Monopoly money, but the startup prevailed, surviving wild swings in the crypto market and steadily building a user base. Today, Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, with 7.4 million monthly users, 2,700 employees and over 80 cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brian Armstrong is the CEO and Founder of Coinbase. Coinbase started in 2012 as simply a custodial Bitcoin wallet and has grown into the massively successful publicly traded company that we know today.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode:  https://shows.banklesshq.com/p/debrief-brian-armstrong-coinbase    ------ ✨ COLLECTIBLES | Collect this episode:  https://collectibles.bankless.com/mint  ------ In this episode, we go over everything you wanted to know from Brian—his reflections on 2022 and his outlook on crypto moving forward. We cover the regulatory situation in America, how SBF infiltrated our halls of power, why Coinbase launched a chain in the worst regulatory environment we’ve ever seen, Wall Street’s understanding of Coinbase, and Brian’s best advice for the settlers and builders sticking around during this crypto winter. The last time we had Brian on the podcast was in November of 2021. We’ve come such a long way since then…and more recently, he also hopped into a livestream with us in the middle of the FTX collapse last November. It was so good to have him back on, enjoy! ------ 📣 RhinoFi | Makes DeFi Frictionless  https://bankless.cc/rhino   ------ 🚀 JOIN BANKLESS PREMIUM:  https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/subscribe  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:  ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://bankless.cc/kraken  🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE https://bankless.cc/uniswap  👻 PHANTOM | #1 SOLANA WALLET https://bankless.cc/phantom-waitlist  🦊METAMASK LEARN | HELPFUL WEB3 RESOURCE https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  ------ Topics Covered 0:00 Intro 8:18 Learnings From 2022 13:05 Brian’s Thoughts on SBF 14:37 FTX’s Affect on Coinbase 19:44 Crypto’s Backlash  24:06 SBF’s Sneaky Political Game 28:55 The Optimistic Long Game  32:29 Organizing Voters & Crypto 435  38:50 Staking, Derivatives, & Crypto Securities 43:42 Why U.S. Crypto Regulation is Bad  46:38 Stabelcoins 53:17 Coinbase’s L2 Base  59:28 Coinbase’s Long Game 1:02:38 The Future Products of Base 1:07:25 Coinbase’s NFT Platform 1:10:41 Base Token?! 1:11:22 Does Wall Street Understand $COIN?  1:15:52 5-10 Year Coinbase Vision  1:17:45 Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS)  1:21:17 One River Acquisition 1:23:55 Decentralizing Coinbase 1:26:00 Crypto in 2030 1:28:20 Were Brians's Crypto Expectations Met? 1:30:06 Advice to Builders 1:32:34 Closing, Action Items, & Disclaimers ------ Resources: Brian Armstrong https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong  Coinbase https://twitter.com/Coinbase   Crypto 435  https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1630592674020335617  ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 

If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard of the recent FTX scandal.While there’s much still unknown, in this episode we get the unique opportunity to hear from Brian Armstrong – co-founder and CEO of Coinbase – about what’s top of mind for the crypto industry. That includes the impact of this current event on future regulation, how this crypto winter might be different from previous ones, founder psychology during downturns, the transparency that comes with being public, and much more.Brian is interviewed by a16z cofounder and general partner Ben Horowitz, who has the unique perspective of having invested in, built, and been on the board of numerous companies during the ups and downs, leading him to his well-known book The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Resources: Subscribe to web3 with a16z: web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/Coinbase’s website: coinbase.comBrian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrongBen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz Stay Updated: Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16zFind us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zSubscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithioPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Bankless Weekly Rollup 2nd Week of February, 2023 ------ 📣 MetaMask Learn  https://bankless.cc/metamaskshow  ------ 🚀 JOIN BANKLESS PREMIUM:  https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/subscribe  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:  🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://bankless.cc/kraken  🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE https://bankless.cc/uniswap  ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  🚁 EARNIFI | CLAIM YOUR UNCLAIMED AIRDROPS https://bankless.cc/earnifi   👻 PHANTOM | CROSS-CHAIN WALLET https://bankless.cc/phantom  ------ Topics Covered 0:00 Intro 9:00 Markets 10:20 TA https://twitter.com/CryptoHornHairs/status/1623068877264498688  12:55 Ultra Sound https://ultrasound.money/  14:15 ETH Burn https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1623482139260887042  15:00 Gas Prices https://twitter.com/hildobby_/status/1622655640056303621  17:55 Bitcoin Blockspace https://twitter.com/dylanleclair_/status/1622660128989233153  21:00 BTC Target https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1621614401550696449  23:35 AI Tokens https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1623300044437725184  26:00 NFT Loans https://thedefiant.io/nftfi-record-loans 30:30 Operation Choke Point https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1622973966360133634  32:45 Choke Point Blog https://www.piratewires.com/p/crypto-choke-point  37:20 Jake Take https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1622978313122635776  38:00 Sen Hagerty https://twitter.com/SenatorHagerty/status/1623375510544781356  40:00 Local Bitcoins Shutdown https://twitter.com/LefterisJP/status/1623662500699951105  41:40 SEC Banning Staking https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1623459203150131201  44:25 Gateway Token  https://therug.mirror.xyz/SzofEWluskmQHZZ568XHyv_pfn70tgMqddORLaxxo8M  45:50 Genesis DCG https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1622735561290031104  https://decrypt.co/120708/gemini-earn-genesis-dcg-agreement  https://www.ft.com/content/abee7e2e-1d18-4a68-aac5-665869db250f  52:30 Arbitrum Stylushttps://twitter.com/arbitrum/status/1622974926331453441  54:45 StarkNet Prover https://www.theblock.co/post/208731/starkware-open-sources-prover-technology-for-ethereum-layer-2-network  55:50 MakerDAO Report https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmNXCG29xCMHhHppw6666zkY1zRTDT75Wdb5LHwEJcsvzH?filename=MakerDAO%202022%20Retrospective.pdf  57:55 a16z Uniswap Governance https://www.theblock.co/post/208729/a16z-votes-against-proposal-to-deploy-latest-uniswap-iteration-on-bnb-chain  https://twitter.com/Dogetoshi/status/1622088935336824833  https://twitter.com/eddylazzarin/status/1622758120878653440  1:03:45 Linkin Park https://twitter.com/linkinpark/status/1623561791447117824  1:05:20 Coffeezilla Sting Operation https://twitter.com/coffeebreak_yt/status/1621581040539033603  1:08:20 FTX Donations https://www.theblock.co/post/208763/ftx-debtors-want-political-donations-returned-by-end-of-the-month  1:09:30 Super Bowl Commercials https://twitter.com/watcherguru/status/1622997422254305294  1:11:40 Do Kron Manhunt https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-07/hunt-for-crypto-fugitive-do-kwon-led-south-korean-officials-to-serbia-last-week  1:12:30 Kyle Davies Hiding https://www.theblock.co/post/209552/kyle-davies-has-chosen-to-ignore-his-duties-to-3ac-after-rare-twitter-subpoena  1:14:20 Taxing Staked Crypto https://decrypt.co/120793/crypto-staking-taxes-appeal  1:16:00 Lido v2 https://twitter.com/LidoFinance/status/1622963224898330624  1:16:50 Aave GHO https://twitter.com/AaveAave/status/1623683819034517504  1:17:20 Element Hyperdrive https://twitter.com/element_fi/status/1623367512086745097  1:17:49 Infinity Pools https://twitter.com/delitzer/status/1623076431243939842  1:18:20 Mean Finance https://twitter.com/mean_fi/status/1621226280984408064  1:19:25 Sorare Premier League https://medium.com/sorare/sorare-partners-with-premier-league-to-launch-digital-player-cards-and-fantasy-competitions-c8b5c5e195b3  1:20:00 Jobs 1:23:30 Questions from the Nation 1:30:00 Takes of the Week 1:33:10 Proof of Time https://twitter.com/trustlessstate/status/1621550977793855488  1:36:40 Opinions that Matter https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1621502310550495232  1:41:20 What David’s Bullish On 1:43:40 What Ryan’s Bullish On 1:45:20 MEMEs of the Week https://twitter.com/MrT09613720/status/1623649904349577216  https://twitter.com/BanklessHQ/status/1623062111604600849  ---- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discusses the future of crypto, reflecting on clashes with the SEC, regulatory challenges, and the potential impact of cryptocurrencies on the global financial system. With high-profile collapses in the industry, Armstrong stands as one of the last digital asset founders, emphasizing the importance of regulatory clarity and Coinbase's long-term trust-building approach.