Coinbase Enters a New Crypto Era With Perks—and Risks
The crypto giant can finally breathe after years of regulatory headaches under Biden. Now it has to figure out how far into memecoins and other untamed corners of crypto it wants to venture.
On the Friday before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in January, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, joined his top executives in Washington at the Crypto Ball, where the tech elite celebrated the imminent arrival of the country’s first crypto-friendly president.
Soon, though, there was an interruption in the revelry for Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, after Trump unexpectedly posted on X that he had launched a memecoin called $Trump. Memecoins are a divisive subject among many crypto enthusiasts—seen by some as fun, collectible forms of digital currencies that capitalize on viral trends and by others as dubious blemishes on the crypto category as a whole.
As Grewal tucked into a chicken lettuce wrap, he overheard other attendees at the gala mentioning some kind of token launch, so he pulled out his phone to check X. “To be honest, my first reaction is—is this real?” Grewal said. “Because I’ve never experienced a launch of a token by as important a political figure as Mr. Trump.”