Coinbase CEO Wants to Sell Part of Stake to Fund Science Research

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has announced plans to sell 2% of his stake in the cryptocurrency platform over the next year to fund scientific research.

Armstrong said on Twitter late Friday that he wants to invest in tech and science in order to solve some of the biggest issues in the world, adding that he will sell 2% of of his entire stake in the company to fund companies like New Limit and ResearchHub.

“I’m passionate about accelerating science and tech to help solve some of the biggest challenges in the world. To further this, I’m planning to sell about 2% of my Coinbase holdings over the next year to fund scientific research and companies like NewLimit + ResearchHub,” the CEO said. 

He noted that he plans to remain as the CEO of Coinbase "for a very long time," thus he is not giving up on the company. "I remain super bullish on crypto and Coinbase," Armstrong said, adding that he will be "fully dedicated" to growing the business. 

NewLimit's Twitter profile says the company is working towards “radical extension of human healthspan using epigenetic reprogramming,” while ResearchHub claims it is focused on “accelerating the pace of science by rewarding the open sharing and discussion of academic research.”

According to Boomberg, Armstrong owns 16% of the US-based crypto exchange and controls 59.5% of its voting shares. 

Coinbase Shares Continue to Struggle Amid Crypto Downturn

Coinbase was the first cryptocurrency exchange to go public. The exchange went public in mid-April last year on Nasdaq and was even valued at around $100 billion on its first day of trading. However, as the crypto market started to cool off, Coinbase's stock also took a hit. 

The exchange's shares hit an all-time highs of $420 shorly after debut, but has dropped substantially since. Part of the reason for COIN's bad performance has been dwindling user interest in crypto markets amid lingering crypto downturn. 

In August, the exchange reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss of $1.1 billion in Q2. The disappointing results came as the crypto exchange saw a sharp drop in its revenue driven by the decline in trading volumes and sinking retail and institutional participation. 

The exchange’s revenues fell from $2.033 billion in the second quarter of 2021 to $803 million, which represents a drop of around 64%. The San Francisco-based crypto company also missed analysts’ estimates for revenue of $832.2 million. 

“Q2 was a tough quarter, with trading volume and transaction revenue each down by 30 per cent and 35 per cent sequentially, respectively. Both metrics were influenced by a shift in customer and market activity, driven by macroeconomic and crypto credit factors alike,” the platform said at the time.