Coinbase

Coinbase Global, Inc. was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. Armstrong, then a former Airbnb engineer, enrolled in the Y Combinator startup incubator and received $150,000 to launch the company. Ehrsam, a former Goldman Sachs trader, joined after discovering Armstrong's posts on Reddit. The company's name refers to coinbase transactions, special transactions that introduce new cryptocurrency into circulation in proof-of-work systems. Coinbase launched its services in October 2012, offering a straightforward way to buy and sell bitcoin using bank transfers.

Coinbase has grown into the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange and the world's biggest bitcoin custodian. As of 2025, it serves over 115 million users across more than 100 countries and holds approximately $294 billion in assets on its platform, including about 12% of all bitcoin in existence and 11% of all staked Ether. The company went public via a direct listing on Nasdaq in April 2021 under the ticker COIN, with an initial private market valuation near $100 billion. Its FY2024 revenue reached $6.56 billion, and it ended 2025 with more than $11.2 billion in cash and nearly $2 billion in cryptocurrency investments.

Coinbase operates as a remote-first company with no traditional headquarters, originally based in San Francisco. It emphasizes security, compliance, and regulatory cooperation, cultivating a reputation as a conservative, law-abiding exchange in a volatile industry. This approach helped it gain trust among cautious investors and institutions, particularly after the collapse of rival FTX in 2022. The company continues to expand through acquisitions, including the purchase of Deribit, a crypto options exchange, for approximately $2.9 billion in 2025, and the launch of its own Layer-2 blockchain, Base, in 2023. [edit]