The people who call the shots at Coinbase

Like every chief executive, Armstrong has to rely on lieutenants not just to carry out his vision for the company but for advice and friendship. And while his own role at Coinbase has not changed, the team around him has evolved significantly—not only are the executives from the early days long gone, but their successors have come to their jobs with very different priorities. That’s why I decided to write an article called “7 People with power at Coinbase.”

Yes, these sort of lists are subjective, but they can still provide useful insight into a company. In the case of Coinbase, it’s notable that his two top lieutenants, COO Emilie Choi and CFO Alesia Haas, are women—a big departure from the all-male early days of Coinbase and one that’s coincided with the company enjoying a greater degree of stability than ever before.

Meanwhile, the people with influence at Coinbase today are nearly all pragmatists from the corporate world who came to crypto well into their careers. This is a far cry from Coinbase’s startup years, when true believers, who had lived and breathed Bitcoin since near the beginning, dominated the company. This has been a good thing for the most part. Elevating practical executives over ideologues allowed Coinbase to become a public company and to increase dramatically its reach and influence. Crypto purists might hate what Coinbase has become (though many of them also hated it from the start), but they can’t deny the firm has been a huge boon to the broader crypto industry.

The corporate nature of Armstrong’s executive team also comes with a drawback, though. Building a crypto firm is an act of faith, and it’s unclear whether someone who lacks the deep belief of Armstrong and those like him could preserve Coinbase’s capacity to innovate. That said, note that my list of people with power at Coinbase includes Jesse Pollak, a semiautonomous engineer who lives and breathes crypto and has been instrumental in building Base, a decentralized blockchain. It shows that, for now, some of Coinbase’s startup spirit remains intact.

Jeff John Roberts
[email protected]
@jeffjohnroberts

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MEME O’ THE MOMENT

Crypto people on tax day: