Building Up a Base for Crypto: The Story of Coinbase's Brian Armstrong

At the helm of Coinbase since founding it with Fred Ehrsam in 2012, Brian Armstrong has weathered rough storms of compliance law to operate the largest crypto exchange active in the United States.

Similarly looking to make crypto more accessible to more people, Coinbase launched a Visa debit card linked to crypto early in April, which it subsequently expanded across Europe in April.

It's clear from the topics he outlined in the blog post that the crypto billionaire has his eyes on the transformation of crypto into a fully compliant industry, capable of coping with traditional institutions and regulators.

Beyond strictly a money-grab, Armstrong is clearly focused on the long-term value of making crypto accessible and relatively stable.

"The decade started off with cryptocurrency being totally unregulated. Coinbase was the first crypto company to really take regulation seriously because we felt it would increase adoption long term. We started applying for money transmitter licenses in the U.S. starting around 2013.".

In addition to somewhat gleefully noting the role of former Coinbase employees in establishing the three major crypto-first venture capital firms, Paradigm, Polychain and A16z Crypto, Armstrong clearly framed the past decade as a process of mainstreaming crypto.

In an "Ask me anything" livestream on YouTube in July, Armstrong explained that his vision for Coinbase is for the firm to move beyond crypto trading, instead offering broader support to advance mass mainstream adoption.

What to look forward toOn Jan. 3, Coinbase published a follow-up to Armstrong's rundown of the 2010s in crypto.

Armstrong foresees not just greater adoption of crypto, but that such adoption will be strongest in the developing world: "In particular, countries with high inflation rates and large remittance markets where crypto can really shine."

Whatever the future brings for crypto, Coinbase and Brian Armstrong look set to play major roles in shaping the industry to come.