Brian Armstrong became one of the richest people in the world after Coinbase Global Inc. was made public on Wednesday.
Co-founded by Mr. Armstrong in 2012, Coinbase operates the largest bitcoin exchange in the US and was the first major cryptocurrency-focused company to go public in the country. At the end of its first trading day, it raised a valuation of approximately $ 85 billion, making Mr. Armstrong’s 20% stake worth approximately $ 17 billion. That puts the 38-year-old chief executive among the richest people in the world, based on Forbes’ billionaires list.
Still, Mr. Armstrong remains largely unknown outside of crypto circles and is somewhat of a mystery within them. He’s not your typical brash Silicon Valley founder or crypto evangelist. He rarely speaks in the press and attends few conferences. His Twitter account, by that platform’s standards, is unusually quiet.
What propels him forward, a number of people who have worked with him said, is a steady focus on bringing bitcoin to the masses.
Mr. Armstrong was an early bitcoin enthusiast. Introduced in 2008 by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is designed as a digital version of cash.