Most Influential 2021: Brian Armstrong

Coinbase’s CEO took the U.S.-based exchange public this year in a direct listing on Nasdaq.

CoinDesk Staff

Dec 10, 2021 at 8:16 p.m. UTC

Updated Dec 13, 2021 at 8:26 p.m. UTC

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CoinDesk Staff

Brian Armstrong, the 38-year-old founder of Coinbase, took the U.S.’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume public this year. In addition to his work making mass crypto adoption easy, Armstrong has been a vocal critic of onerous financial regulations, even proposing that the U.S. appoint a crypto-specific industry watchdog. Although a proposed savings feature called Lend was waylaid by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase continues to expand its revenue streams with a non-fungible token (NFTs) platform and credit card. Recently, Coinbase worked with decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Compound to bring users greater returns on their DAI holdings. Something of a crypto “incumbent,” Coinbase continues to innovate.

The Complete List: CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021

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