Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, told CNBC that he is “really proud” of what one of the company’s first software engineers has accomplished since he left the online home rental market.
That former Airbnb employee is Brian Armstrong, Coinbase co-founder and CEO. The cryptocurrency exchange went public and rallied directly on Wednesday, in a major milestone for the fast-growing digital asset industry.
“Brian is actually one of the original architects of our payment platform and fraud detection system. So I’m really, really proud of what he’s doing,” Chesky said in an interview that aired Friday on Tech Check.
San Francisco-based Airbnb, which had its own high-profile IPO in December, was founded in 2008. Armstrong worked for the company for just over a year. Shortly after his departure in 2012, Armstrong started Coinbase together with Fred Ehrsam, a former currency trader at Goldman Sachs.
Chesky said he has “kept in touch” with Armstrong.
At the time of Coinbase’s inception, bitcoin was only three years old and cost about $ 6. Ehrsam is still a member of Coinbase’s board, but retired from a daily role in 2017. He is now a managing partner at Paradigm, a crypto-focused investment company he helped start up.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ether have shed a tear in recent months.
One factor cited for bitcoin’s price hike – going from less than $ 11,000 in early October to more than $ 61,000 as of Friday – is institutional adoption. Bitcoin, which accounts for more than half of the $ 2 trillion cryptocurrency market, hit an all-time high of nearly $ 65,000 on Wednesday.
Two major Wall Street banks – Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs – are taking steps to provide asset management clients with exposure to bitcoin, and companies like Tesla have bought the digital currency with cash on their balance sheets. The electric vehicle maker also started accepting bitcoin as payment for its products.
Billionaire Rick Caruso’s real estate firm has also recently invested in bitcoin and will start letting tenants of its residential and retail properties pay rent using the world’s largest cryptocurrency based on market value.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase (L), and Brian Chesky CEO of Airbnb.
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Asked by CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa if Airbnb has any plans regarding crypto adoption, Chesky said he “had nothing to announce at this point. But I can tell you we definitely looked into this.”
However, Chesky spoke affectionately about bitcoin, as well as the role that Armstrong’s Coinbase has played in building a crypto exchange focused on security.
“I think one of the lessons here is when you empower people, it creates more economic empowerment and more access,” Chesky said. “But in order to gain more power with people, people must be able to trust each other.”
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are backed by blockchain technology, a decentralized digital ledger on which transactions are recorded. Proponents expect blockchain adoption to increase in the coming years, with some people comparing its disruptive potential to the early days of the internet.
“Obviously, cryptocurrencies have their own system of trust. Airbnb, our system of trust based on our reputation system, I think has unlocked a lot of economics,” Chesky said. “So I think these general trends of unlocking trust systems that allow more people to participate in the economy are a huge boon to the global economy.”
Coinbase’s stock was up about 5% on Friday to about $ 340 a share, about $ 12 above where it closed its debut session two days ago. Coinbase’s market cap is close to $ 67 billion.
Since closing 112% on its IPO debut late last year, Airbnb shares are up about 20%. The stock traded around $ 177 on Friday, giving Airbnb a market cap of more than $ 106 billion.
Airbnb’s business is benefiting from the recovery after a slowdown due to a Covid pandemic. Chesky told CNBC the company believes it will “need millions more hosts” in the coming years to keep up. It currently has 4 million hosts.