Brian Armstrong Sells Coinbase Shares To Finance Anti-Aging Startup

JAKARTA - Brian Armstrong, founder and CEO of Coinbase, the United States' largest crypto exchange, has sold most of its stake in the company. Armstrong announced his intention to sell Coinbase's 2% stake via Twitter in June 2022, citing funding other projects outside of crypto.

"I'm sharing this because I want you to hear it directly from me," Armstrong wrote.

Armstrong kept his promise. Between November 2022 and November 2023, Armstrong sold around 790,000 Coinbase shares, equivalent to 2% ownership disclosed in Coinbase's prospectus before its live listing in April 2021.

Armstrong earned nearly $53.2 million during that period, selling shares at an average price of $67.37 (Rp1.05 million), according to OpenInsider data compiled by Blockworks, which refers to reports submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Coinbase shares are currently trading around $164 (IDR 2.56 million) and those 2% shares will now be worth $129.5 million (IDR 2.02 trillion). So, effectively, Armstrong lost $76 million (IDR 1.19 trillion) by selling too quickly.

Armstrong's Projects use part of his share sales to fund two startups in the biomedical and scientific fields, namely NewLimit and ResearchHub.

NewLimit, founded by Armstrong along with three others, wants to program human cells to prolong life. The startup uses an epigenetic approach, namely modifying gene expression without changing DNA, to restore young cellular functions. NewLimit also uses technologies such as single-cell genomics, machine learning, and large-scale functional tests to uncover the epigenetic features of aging and find renewable interventions.

ResearchHub, founded by Armstrong with former medical student Patrick Joyce, aims to change its academic and scientific publishing incentive system by mixing open source sensitivity with crypto funding. The startup builds a platform that connects researchers and helps them share and find papers, projects and ideas. ResearchHub also provides incentives in the form of crypto tokens to researchers who contribute to peer review, reproduction, and collaboration processes.

Despite fulfilling his promise to sell Coinbase's 2% stake, Armstrong doesn't seem to have stopped releasing his shares. He has sold 316,150 shares since November, on par with almost one other percentage point from his shares.

Armstrong's sales have been stable for more than a year. So, it took Armstrong a full year to sell 2% and now he has sold almost half of that in three months. He pocketed $44.6 million (Rp697 billion) during that period, with an average of $141 (Rp2.2 million) per share.