Armstrong is the chief executive and co-founder of Coinbase, a digital currency platform. The San Francisco-based company allows users to buy and sell digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and has around $193 billion in assets held on its platform. It reported revenue of $3.1 billion in 2023.
The majority of Armstrong's fortune is derived from his ownership of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase. The San Francisco-based company holds around $193 billion in assets on its platform, according to its website.
Coinbase reported revenue of $3.2 billion in 2022, according to its annual report. Armstrong is calculated to hold a 16% stake in the firm, which he holds directly and through trusts, according to its 2023 proxy statement and a January 2024 filing. Armstrong founded the company in 2012.
The value of his cash holdings is based on an analysis of historical transactions, stock performance and tax.
Paul Cafiero, a spokesperson for Coinbase, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Armstrong grew up in San Jose, California, and studied economics and computer science at Rice University in Houston, graduating in 2005. While at university, he set up online tuition directory Universitytutor.com, and was its chief executive until 2012.
After graduating, Armstrong worked at Deloitte & Touche as a risk management consultant, before joining Airbnb as a software engineer in 2011. He founded Coinbase with Fred Ehrsam in 2012, initially running the business from an apartment in San Francisco.
In December 2013, Coinbase completed a $25 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The platform reached 30 million users in July 2019. It began trading on the Nasdaq exchange in 2021.