The head of the US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, is likely to meet with President-elect Donald Trump as Trump continues to announce personnel choices for his administration and heads of government departments.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on November 18, Trump plans to meet privately with Armstrong to discuss personnel appointments. The Coinbase CEO has not shown any direct contributions to the Republican Party's 2024 campaign or political action committees (PACs) supporting him, but said before the US election that the cryptocurrency exchange would be ready to cooperate with the Trump administration.
It is still unclear whether Armstrong or an employee of Coinbase may have any role in the upcoming US presidential administration. At the Bit 2024 conference in July, the then-candidate Trump said he plans to establish a "presidential advisory council on Bit and cryptocurrencies" to "design transparent regulatory guidance for the benefit of the entire industry" within 100 days of taking office.
Since the election results were announced on November 6, Trump has announced many potential choices for his administration, even threatening to bypass Senate confirmation to push through in 2025. At the time of the announcement, the president-elect did not publicly state who he plans to nominate to replace Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, whom he promised to fire "on day one."
Armstrong posted on X after the US election supporting at least one of Trump's initiatives, the 'Government Performance Office' — not an actual department unless established by Congress — under the leadership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. TinTucBitcoin reached out to Coinbase for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Brian Armstrong's Shifting Political Stance in the US
In 2020, Coinbase CEO stated that the company would not support "any cause or candidate unrelated to our mission as it would distract from our mission." However, his public position appears to have changed significantly in 2023 after the cryptocurrency exchange received a Wells notice from the SEC and a subsequent lawsuit alleging the provision of unregistered securities.
After the SEC's Wells notice, Armstrong called on the cryptocurrency community to "vote for pro-crypto candidates" to achieve regulatory clarity for the industry. In 2024, he personally urged his X Watchers to vote for Republican candidates for the US Senate in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Coinbase and Armstrong have also contributed around $46 million to the Fairshake Political Action Committee to support 2024 candidates that the committee evaluates as supporting cryptocurrency policy, most of whom have won their primaries and their races. The exchange has contributed an additional $25 million to the committee to help "elect pro-crypto candidates" in the 2026 US midterm elections.
