Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Solana Co-Founder Anatoly Yakovenko discuss all things Solana: how it all started, the core differentiators of the Solana blockchain (and how it compares to Ethereum), the evolution and state of its developer ecosystem, and the web3 phone that the Solana team is shipping this year.…

Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas and Head of Institutional Research, David Duong, review the year in crypto. They cover some of the topics in Coinbase’s recently published 2023 year ahead report, including: the key events and takeaways from the year, and the opportunities to expand crypto use cases in 2023. You can read the full report at coinbase.com: htt…

Coinbase’s VP of Business Development for Ecosystem and Listings, Dan Kim, leads a discussion on whether or not the United States is losing the battle to be the best place for crypto projects to list their tokens on exchanges like Coinbase. Joining him for the conversation are Luke Lombe, founding partner at Faculty Group and Daniel Forester, partn…

In this episode of Around the Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong chats with Ben Horowitz, cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, at a16z’s inaugural Founders Summit conference. They cover management, company culture, and more as they discuss the events that have unfolded in the crypto space over the last month, and also share why th…

Coverage of the midterm elections seemed to take a back seat to all the breaking news in the crypto space this month, and that’s left us with a lot to talk about. In this episode of Around the Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong hosts Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s Head of US Policy, Chris Lehane, Chief Strategy Officer at Haun Ventures and Marta Belcher…

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong hosts Ryan Selkis, co-founder and CEO of Messari as the two discuss the impacts of the FTX collapse on the industry and its regulatory environment, and how Web3 builders can learn from this experience and move the space forward.This episode of Around the Block was recorded during @coinbase’s live Twitter Space on Novemb…

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong hosts Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, from the 2022 Singapore FinTech Festival. Brian and Jeremy discuss the utility value of crypto as the space grows out of its speculative value phase. The conversation covers: DAOS – how do they work, and are they here to stay? What role do blockchains play in global cr…

In this episode of Around the Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong hosts entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host Anthony Pompliano, known to many in the crypto world as "Pomp.” The two discuss how they’re thinking about Bitcoin amid current market conditions, their long-term predictions for Ethereum one month after the merge, the issue of censorshi…

Directed by Greg Kohs, COIN: A Founder’s Story chronicles the rise of Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s visionary co-founder and CEO, who harnesses the power of an emerging technology to promote a mission of global economic freedom. In this episode of Around the Block, Brian Armstrong hosts Greg Kohs as the two discuss what it was like to capture all the…

On September 8th, 2022 Coinbase announced it was funding and supporting a lawsuit brought by six individuals (including two Coinbase employees) challenging the Treasury Department’s novel sanctions of open source software associated with Tornado Cash. The plaintiffs we are supporting represent a cross section of crypto users and developers who used…

Earlier this month, developers behind Helium proposed to migrate the network off of its own blockchain onto Solana. In this episode of Around the Block, Founder and CEO of Helium, Amir Haleem, shares the vision behind Helium, the key moments and decisions that shaped the network, and why the move to Solana could be the project’s best bet. Today's c…

The U.S. government’s action against Tornado Cash sent shock waves through the crypto community and left most of us with more questions than answers. In this episode of Around the Block, Host Viktor Bunin, Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation Sheila Warren and Head of Policy for the Blockchain Ass…

The Merge is rapidly approaching and will transition Ethereum from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake after 7 years of research and development. In this episode of Around the Block, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discuss Coinbase’s responsibility as an infrastructure operator, maintaining a credibly neutral Ethere…

Much of the excitement over this last cycle surrounded Ethereum and smart contract based applications. However there are still many who are sticking to building on Bitcoin. River CEO Alex Leishman is one of them, building a Bitcoin only bank. In this conversation, we talk to Alex about what makes Bitcoin special and what keeps him dedicated to it. …

According to the BIS, 9 out of 10 Central Banks will be conducting experiments around CBDCs, or Central Bank Digital Currencies, in 2022. So what’s the intrigue, and how long before we see CBDCs make the leap from theoretical possibility to an everyday reality? Will they be built on permissioned or public blockchains? In this conversation with Visa…

After years in the making, the Ethereum Merge is fast approaching. In this conversation with Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, we break down how the merge will help make Ethereum a more eco-friendly, economically efficient, and secure network. Note: Merge timing predictions have shifted since the episode was recorded, with Vitalik Buteri…

Grayscale is the world’s largest digital asset manager, offering a wide range of secure, regulated and future-forward digital asset investment products. In this conversation with Grayscale CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, we discuss the state of regulated crypto investment products. More specifically, GBTC, and what’s taking the SEC so long to finally app…

In this episode of Around the Block with Castle Island VC’s Nic Carter, we get to the heart of what is driving the Bitcoin mining debate. Carter gives a breakdown of what people are concerned about when it comes to mining activities, and offers his own take on the issue. We also get the chance to dispel common misconceptions surrounding Bitcoin min…

A frank discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about the state of the economy, crypto, and Coinbase as a whole. We discuss the market downturn, Coinbase’s market positioning, and end with Brian’s thoughts on Ray Dalio’s, “Changing World Order,” and crypto’s place within it. Today's conversation is for informational purposes only and does not …

Web3 has been commonly defined by three words: read, write, own. In this conversation with Variant Fund's Li Jin, we discuss how Web3 can enable ownership to be distributed across the internet as seamlessly as the internet distributes communications. We learn how the “ownership economy” will enable all kinds of new user experiences and how the next…

There’s a growing demand amongst institutions and enterprises to access liquid staking, but to date, there hasn’t been a solution that meets their compliance and security standards. Alluvial was founded with support from Figment and Coinbase Cloud to change that. In this conversation with Alluvial CEO, Matt Leisinger, we discuss the misconceptions …

While many still struggle to wrap their heads around what the metaverse actually is, Everyrealm is out there identifying investment opportunities within this nascent landscape. In this conversation with Everyrealm CEO, Janine Yorio, she defines what the metaverse is to her, and how Everyrealm approaches metaverse investing from first principles. To…

Following the breakout of crypto-gaming in 2021, “GameFi” continues to show promise in onboarding the next billion crypto users. The opportunity is particularly exciting in places like Vietnam, where citizens increasingly view crypto as a way to climb the economic ladder. In this conversation with Ancient8 founder Howard Xu, we discuss the state of…

Asset listings at Coinbase: often discussed, sparsely understood. In this episode, we dive into some of the elephants in the room with respect to our listing process. First, we address some recent concerns raised by the community along with some changes coming to our process. Next, we get into some common questions that users have. How do we decide…

While the term, “metaverse” conjures images of a “Ready Player One” type virtual world, understanding what it actually is today, is a bit trickier. As you’ll learn, that’s because it’s still a nascent idea that will take 5-10 years to fully materialize. In this conversation with Alex Reeve, who leads Coinbase’s strategy on Web2, Web3, and metaverse…

When you type Coinbase into the app store, you’re met with two options: one for Coinbase, and another for Coinbase Wallet. So how do they differ? In this episode with Coinbase Wallet Director of Engineering Chintan Turakhia, we break down the difference between custodial exchanges that manage assets on behalf of a user, and self-custodial wallets l…

The world of blockchains is complex, but Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Quereshi has come up with a powerful analogy for piecing this complicated world together. In this conversation, we walk through Hasseb’s elegant mental model that will leave you with a clearer way of thinking about the entire crypto ecosystem. Most critically, you will learn why bl…

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government solicited donations in cryptocurrency - the first time a nation-state has ever done so. What followed was tens of millions raised in donations by the Ukrainian government and NGOs in Bitcoin, ETH, stablecoins, and even NFTs. Suppliers of the Ukrainian government even started accepting…

It’s tax season, which means it's time to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. But crypto taxes are tricky. What scenarios trigger a taxable event? How does the IRS view behaviors like yield farming, staking, and receiving airdrops? Are you responsible for paying taxes on your NFTs? In this conversation with Coinbase’s VP of Tax, Lawrence Zlatkin, …

The recent $250M Wormhole exploit is just one of several high profile hacks to hit the cryptosphere of late. It did, however, have a positive resolution after the protocol's backers jumped in to make consumers whole. In this conversation, we offer you some common sense advice for navigating both the risks you can control, and those you cannot. We t…

It’s been said that DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) in their current form are neither decentralized nor autonomous. Instead, they’re human lead organizations that are still figuring out how to operate under a brand new paradigm. In this conversation with Orca Protocol’s Julia Rosenberg, we dive into the hardest problems facing decentr…

In a vampire attack reminiscent of SushiSwap vs Uniswap in 2020, NFT marketplace LooksRare found a clever way to coax users away from market leader OpenSea. The result? LooksRare did nearly double OpenSea’s volume in January. The catch? Due to incentives offered by LooksRare, these totals are heavily skewed by wash trading. In this conversation, we…

Elias Simos is a protocol specialist for Coinbase Cloud who put together a mega-viral yearend thread titled, “The 69 most interesting charts in crypto for 2021.” In this conversation, we discuss some of the most interesting data points from the year, including the rise of application specific blockchains, NFT’s monster year, memecoins, the ENS aird…

Electric Capital’s Annual Developer report offers key insights into developer activity across various crypto ecosystems. In this episode, we discuss the report with author and EC partner Maria Shen and she reveals which ecosystems are growing the fastest and why less developers than you might think maintain Bitcoin and DeFi. Today's conversation is…

​​In this conversation with Reddit co-founder and current founder of venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, we get to the heart of what has Alexis Ohanian excited about Web3. Alexis defines what Web3 means to him, what gravitated him to crypto, and why it reminds him about the early days of Reddit. We also dive into the importance of communities in …

In this special bonus episode of the Around The Block podcast, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong chats with Messari CEO Ryan Selkis on the heels of Messari’s massive year-end report: Crypto Theses for 2022. They discuss the current state of the industry, the political climate in Washington, the Web3 landscape, layer 1 competition, layer 2 scaling, DAOs,…

Since its inception, Bitcoin has grown and evolved tremendously, along with the rest of the crypto industry. But where does Bitcoin fit in within the growing world of Web 3 technologies and smart contract platforms? And what else can we do with Bitcoin? Justin and Katherine sit down with Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali, who’s dedicated to building sma…

Cryptosecurity can be a little scary. What does it mean to “own” crypto and where should you hold your crypto? What are some common pitfalls to watch out for? Justin and Katherine get into crypto safety and security with Mark Nesbitt, the engineering manager on the blockchain security team at Coinbase. Today's conversation is for informational purp…

What is the current state of privacy in crypto, and what will it look like in the future with continued breakthrough in Zero Knowledge Proofs. In this conversation with Jill Gunter, we discuss the issues surrounding the completely transparent nature of blockchains and how ZK proofs can open up the design space for a host of new applications for DAO…

In 2021, DAOs have taken off, ranging from multi-billion dollar protocol DAOs to smaller investment, service, and social DAOs. But what are the realities of working for a DAO? What are the limitations, how do DAOs coordinate, what infrastructure is still needed, and how can people get started with their first DAO? We dive into those questions with …

There is a whole lot of buzz around DAOs - decentralized autonomous organizations. But what exactly are they and what’s all the hype about? How can DAOs forever change how humans organize and connect communities and capital? To kick off the first half of this discussion, Justin & Katherine are joined by Jesse Pollak, the Senior Director of Engineer…

While it’s easy to get into crypto, understanding the technology, tools and protocols behind the ecosystem involves a lot of buzzwords and questions, like why are there so many different blockchains and what is the blockchain scaling trilemma? This week, Justin & Katherine attempt to peel back the layers of the multichain world. Today's conversatio…

How can Coinbase continue to evolve in a decentralized world and what exciting developments are in store for the future? Justin and Katherine welcome Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong to the podcast for a candid conversation to share his thoughts on how far crypto has come and where he hopes to see it grow from here. Today's conversation …

When two of the biggest and most passionate communities in the world collide you get crypto gaming. Just how big can crypto gaming become? Justin and Katherine talk to investor and partner at Lightspeed Ventures Amy Wu about what’s driving the growth in crypto gaming, why Axie Infinity has so successfully led the way, and what the next 12-18 months…

In the premiere episode of AROUND THE BLOCK from Coinbase, Justin and Katherine dive deep into one of the biggest shifts in the crypto landscape - the ever-growing world of NFTs. NFT collector and expert gmoney joins to discuss CryptoPunks, why NFTs are so popular and appealing to creators and collectors, and why this is just the beginning. Be sure…