Overview

Coinbase Global, Inc. is an American cryptocurrency exchange. It was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. Coinbase has over 100 million users, and is the largest U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange as well as the world's biggest bitcoin custodian, as of 2024. The company operates in more than 100 countries and holds nearly US$516 billion in assets, including nearly 12 percent of all bitcoin in existence and 11 percent of all staked Ether.

Described as a conservative and law-abiding cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase offers cryptocurrency products and services. As of 2025, the company operates as a remote-first company with no physical headquarters.

2012–2019: founding and early years

Coinbase was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer. Armstrong enrolled in the Y Combinator startup incubator program and received a US$150,000 cash infusion. Fred Ehrsam, a former Goldman Sachs trader, later joined as a co-founder after noticing Armstrong's posts on Reddit. British programmer and Blockchain.info co-founder Ben Reeves was originally supposed to be part of the Coinbase founding team, but parted ways with Armstrong just before the Y Combinator funding event, due to their different stands on how the Coinbase wallet should operate.

The company is named after coinbase transactions, which are special transactions that introduce cryptocurrency into circulation in proof of work cryptocurrencies. In October 2012, the company launched the services to buy and sell bitcoins through bank transfers.

In May 2013, Coinbase received a US$5 million Series A investment led by Fred Wilson from the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. In December, the company received a US$25 million investment from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures (USV), and Ribbit Capital. Olaf Carlson-Wee, a graduate from Vassar College, was hired as the first employee in the same year.

In 2014, Coinbase grew to one million users, acquired the blockchain explorer service Blockr and the web bookmarking company Kippt, secured insurance covering the value of bitcoin stored on their servers and launched the vault system for secure bitcoin storage. Throughout 2014, the company also partnered with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, and Time Inc. allowing those firms to accept bitcoin payments. In the same year, the company also added bitcoin payment processing capabilities to the traditional payment companies Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.

In January 2014, Coinbase Global, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware as a holding company for Coinbase and its subsidiaries. The corporate reorganization that saw Coinbase become a subsidiary of Coinbase Global was completed in April of that year.

2020–2021: remote-first working and IPO

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Coinbase announced it was shifting completely to remote work and would no longer recognize a formal headquarters. Also in May, the company announced the acquisition of New York-based digital asset trading firm Tagomi for a price between US$75 and US$100 million. In June, Coinbase received internal backlash after CEO Brian Armstrong initially refused to make a statement about Black Lives Matter, citing the company's apolitical culture, but Armstrong later reversed his course on Twitter.

In September, Armstrong published a blog post emphasizing that Coinbase would not engage in social activism, citing that such activism had hurt other technology firms such as Google and Facebook, and offered a severance package for those who disagreed with this direction. The company also faced complaints by employees saying they were treated unfairly due to their race or gender.

In October, Coinbase announced the launch of a Visa debit card program. In December, The New York Times reported that based upon data up to 2018 (already two years old as of the date of publication) women at Coinbase were paid an average of eight percent less than men at comparable jobs and ranks within the company, and Black employees were paid seven percent less than those in similar roles. Aaron Renn, however, notes that this analysis "made no adjustments for education or experience levels."

In April 2021, with its final earnings release before its April 14 direct listing, Coinbase reported a nine-fold increase in first-quarter revenue, to US$1.8 billion, up from US$90.6 million the previous year. The jump was attributed to the increase in the price of bitcoin over that period.

2022–2025: SEC lawsuit and dismissal; other updates

In February 2022, Coinbase's 60-second commercial during Super Bowl LVI involved a QR code to direct viewers to the company's webpage and was effective, according to Adweek. In the following month, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Coinbase blocked 25,000 cryptocurrency wallet addresses related to Russia.

Coinbase began operations in India in April 2022. The company initially relied on Unified Payments Interface to allow users to convert rupees to cryptocurrencies, but ceased using UPI after a statement released by the National Payments Corporation of India indicating it was "not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI". This statement forced Coinbase to suspend most of its business in India. Users in India cannot convert rupees into cryptocurrency but can trade between different cryptocurrencies.

In May 2022, Coinbase-backed Mara raised US$23 million to build an African crypto Exchange. On June 14, 2022, the company announced it would be laying off approximately 18% of its workforce, about 1,100 full-time jobs, amid the global downturn in cryptocurrencies and services. In August 2022, Coinbase announced a partnership with BlackRock, a venture which allows BlackRock clients to use their Aladdin investment management system to oversee their exposure to bitcoin along with other portfolio assets, and to facilitate trading on Coinbase's exchange.

SEC lawsuit and dismissal

On 22 March 2023, Coinbase received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signalling that the SEC intended to begin an enforcement action over Coinbase's staking products. Coinbase responded by calling the investigation "cursory", and stated that it would continue to operate as usual. The next month, Coinbase sued the SEC asking a federal court to force the regulator to respond to a rulemaking petition the company submitted last year asking it to make clear regulations pertaining cryptocurrencies.

In June 2023, the SEC said it was suing Coinbase, alleging that the company had been acting as an unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency since 2019, requesting that the company be "permanently restrained and enjoined" from doing so. The SEC also alleged that Coinbase never registered its staking service as required by U.S. securities laws.

In February 2025 following the election of Donald Trump, the SEC dismissed its lawsuit against Coinbase, putting an end to a legal battle between the two.