Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and chief executive of Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, said he doesn't follow the speculative corners of Base, the company's Ethereum Layer-2 network, after users accused him of helping fuel and then abandoning a memecoin frenzy linked to his changing profile picture.
The controversy began after Armstrong replaced a fake-looking CryptoPunk avatar with "Coinbase Man," a superhero-style illustration of himself that inspired speculators to launch BRIAN, an unofficial memecoin bearing his name on Base.
- The token's valuation briefly climbed above $30 million before Armstrong bought a real CryptoPunk, changed his profile picture again and seemingly helped trigger a collapse of as much as 95%.
Armstrong tried to cool the backlash in an X post on Monday, July 20, saying his posts and profile pictures weren't endorsements and that he may not even know when tokens are attached to content he shares.
"If you want Jesse [Jesse Pollak, the founder of Base] or me to pump your bags or shill certain coins, we're also not going to do that," Armstrong wrote.
"Sorry to disappoint"
But the reference to Pollak made the denial particularly awkward. The thing is, Pollak had spent months publicly promoting creator coins, tradable tokens tied to people or their posts, on Base.
- For instance, as The Coinformer reported, he directed followers to buy a Zora creator coin tied to Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase.
- He later launched and promoted JESSE, his own creator coin, which reached a roughly $25 million valuation before two early traders reportedly extracted $1.3 million.
Rune, an X user commenting under Armstrong's latest post, challenged his claim that he might not know about tokens attached to his posts.
- As Rune argued, BRIAN generated more than $100 million in volume, attracted over 40,000 traders and left more than 10,000 people down 99%, while thousands of users repeatedly tagged Armstrong.
But Armstrong replied that he had "nothing to do with that coin" and had only possibly seen a few mentions.
Brian Armstrong
That appeared to be a point of no return for many in the comments because Coinbase spent much of 2025 making social posts, token discovery and trading central to Base.
- The exchange even rebranded Coinbase Wallet, its self-custodial crypto wallet, as the Base App, called it an on-chain "everything app" and declared that "the future of the internet is built on Base."
- Coinbase later made expanding Base one of its three priorities for 2026.
What the numbers say
It isn't clear why Base's trenches aren't a priority for Coinbase's CEO, but the company's figures may offer a hint. Base remains relatively small financially, at least according to Coinbase's regulatory filings.
While the exchange doesn't disclose Base revenue separately, the category that included Base and instant transfers generated just $53.2 million in the first quarter of 2026.
- For comparison, consumer trading generated around $567 million, while stablecoins brought in approximately $305 million, according to the company's quarterly filing.
- Even if Base accounted for every dollar in its category, it would represent less than 4% of Coinbase's $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue.
Rune called Armstrong's explanation "not a disclaimer" but "abandonment," while Monchain, another X user, told Armstrong, "you have to respect your community wdym. you literally basically are telling traders on base not to trade on it."