# Coinbase Leadership Who runs [[Coinbase]], drawn mainly from its 2026 proxy statement (filed April 24, 2026) and later SEC filings. ## How control works Coinbase has two classes of stock. Ordinary Class A shares carry one vote each; **Class B shares carry 20 votes each**. As of March 31, 2026, there were about 222 million Class A shares and 41 million Class B shares. - **[[Brian Armstrong]]** is credited with about 25.6 million Class B shares and **49.6% of all voting power**. That figure includes shares he controls as trustee of a trust set up by co-founder [[Fred Ehrsam]]. - Separate Armstrong family trusts run by an independent trustee hold another **18.9%** of the vote. - The company says Armstrong and his affiliated entities have held a majority of the vote since May 2021. - Directors and executives together hold **60.4%** of the vote. In practice, ordinary shareholders cannot outvote the founder on anything. Coinbase also moved its legal home from Delaware to **Texas** in December 2025. It says it is "remote-first" and has no headquarters. ## Executives | Name | Role | Notes | |---|---|---| | [[Brian Armstrong]] | Co-founder, chairman and chief executive | 2025 pay $9.7M: a $1M salary plus $8.7M mostly for security and aircraft; no stock grant in 2025 | | [[Emilie Choi]] | President and chief operating officer | President since November 2020 | | [[Alesia Haas]] | Chief financial officer | Sold about $74.5M of stock in 2026 | | Paul Grewal | Chief legal officer until July 31, 2026 | Led the SEC fight; resigned July 2026. Molly Abraham is expected to become general counsel | | Lawrence Brock | Chief people officer until August 17, 2026 | Dominique Baillet expected to succeed him | | Jennifer Jones | Chief accounting officer | Announced retirement September 29, 2026; stays until a successor is named | | Faryar Shirzad | Chief policy officer | Runs Washington strategy; not an SEC-designated executive officer | ## Board of directors (as of September 2026) | Director | Joined | Notes | |---|---|---| | [[Brian Armstrong]] | 2012 | Chair | | [[Marc Andreessen]] | 2020 | Co-founder of [[Andreessen Horowitz]]; sold about $7.8M of stock in September and October 2026 | | Christa Davies | 2024 | Former chief financial officer of Aon | | [[Fred Ehrsam]] | 2013 | Co-founder; holds about 10.6% of the vote | | Kelly Kramer | 2020 | Chairs the audit committee | | [[Chris Lehane]] | 2024 | [[OpenAI]]'s head of global affairs and a former Clinton White House aide. The proxy lists him as **not independent** without giving a reason | | Tobi Lütke | 2022 | Chief executive of Shopify, which has a USDC payments deal with Coinbase | | Gokul Rajaram | 2020 | Chairs the nominating committee | | Fred Wilson | 2017 | Lead independent director; sold about $12.6M of stock in 2026 | | [[Anthony Armstrong]] | September 1, 2026 | Former chief financial officer of [[xAI]] and X, former senior adviser to the Department of Government Efficiency (see [[DOGE Ecosystem]]), former Morgan Stanley vice chairman. No relation to Brian Armstrong | Former Solicitor General Paul Clement left the board at the June 16, 2026 annual meeting. ## What stands out - **The Musk and DOGE tie.** Anthony Armstrong joined the board in September 2026, coming from Elon Musk's companies and the Department of Government Efficiency effort. - **A political strategist on the board.** Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House aide who now runs global affairs at OpenAI, sits on the board and is not counted as independent. - **Related-party dealings.** Coinbase listed ResearchCoin in 2025, a token created by ResearchHub, a science-funding project Armstrong co-founded and runs; Coinbase earned about $201,000 from it. Its payments deal with Shopify, run by director Tobi Lütke, was expanded in April 2026. - **Turnover in 2026.** The chief legal officer, chief people officer and chief accounting officer all announced departures between July and September 2026, after about 700 layoffs in May. ## See also - [[Coinbase Dossier]] — the full dossier - [[Coinbase Investors]] · [[Coinbase Political Spending]]