Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

'It appears massive fraud was committed': Here are the 7 best quotes from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's interview on crypto, FTX, and the future of digital assets.

'It appears massive fraud was committed': Here are the 7 best quotes from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's interview on crypto, FTX, and the future of digital assets.

"I do think we have to admit as an industry that crypto has attracted more fraudsters than we'd like," Brian Armstrong told Stratechery.
The swift collapse of FTX last month has shaken the cryptocurrency industry to its core, as token prices continue to fall and investor trust drops to a new low.

Coinbase hasn't been immune to the tumult, with the crypto exchange forecasting a 50% revenue decline in 2022 and its stock falling 84% year-to-date.

CEO Brian Armstrong spoke with the Stratechery newsletter on Thursday, addressing the future of crypto as well as the implosion of FTX and its impact going forward.

Here are the seven best quotes:

1. On the prevalent fraud in crypto

"I do think we have to admit as an industry that crypto has attracted more fraudsters than we'd like. It probably is getting too many people like that into this industry, which does frustrate me. I still think 95% of the people who I meet in crypto are legitimate people trying to do really good work. They don't really get the lion share of the attention, because everybody loves the salacious story."

2. On the downfall of FTX

"It appears that a massive fraud was committed. I think that customer funds appear to have been moved over to his hedge fund that he owned 90% of, and that those customer funds were lost. This is a violation not only of the terms of service as it's written as far as I understand it, but it's also probably just against the law and outright fraud."

3. On the media's response to the FTX implosion

"It's been pretty bizarre to kind of watch the whole thing unfold, primarily because I do feel like mainstream media has given a lot of softball interviews. And even this tweet back and forth with Maxine Waters very politely asking him to attend a hearing, and him politely deferring, it was bizarre. This guy just committed a $10 billion fraud, and why is he getting treated with kid gloves?"

4. On the future of crypto

"There are enough great people working in crypto that I think this industry is going to do really well. We do have a responsibility as an industry and policymakers and regulators to get a bunch of regulatory clarity, especially for the centralized pieces of crypto."

5. On the decentralization of crypto

"And then the decentralized pieces of crypto, which Coinbase also plays in that space, those are the ones that are going to actually, I think, provide consumer protections and things using something even better, even more powerful, which is open-source code, self-custody. Anybody can go in there and audit these smart contracts to see if they're doing what they claim to be doing. So there's even a better system we can create in the future."

6. On the lack of crypto regulation and its harm to US consumers

"What happened as a result of this lack of regulatory clarity in the US is that it became more profitable for companies to incorporate offshore and try to serve the world from these kind of favorable havens. And so that didn't really benefit customers or investors in the US. In fact, it caused them more harm. They were pushed into these offshore things that were not regulated. It didn't benefit American companies because, again, it harmed our ability to build our companies in the US."

7. On the benefits of crypto

"First it's a new form of money, and that's actually a really important thing. Many places in the world, people don't have stable currency, and there's all kinds of wealth that's eroded from the poorest people in society. It's just a foundational part that we take for granted in the US, given that we have 8 or 9% inflation, which we think is extreme. In many places in the world, you get 25% in a month or something."
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×