‘No Risk of Bankruptcy,’ Says Coinbase CEO

Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has said in a tweet they have no risk for bankruptcy. He assured investors that their funds were safe even during the “black swan” event that saw Bitcoin drop below $30,000 for the first time since the middle of 2021.

Armstrong explained in his tweet that they did, however, include a new risk factor based on an SEC requirement called SAB 121, which is a newly required disclosure for public companies that hold crypto-assets for third parties.

We believe our Prime and Custody customers have strong legal protections in their terms of service that protects their assets, even in a black swan event like this.

For its retail customers, Coinbase will be taking further steps to update user terms such that it offers the same protections to those customers in a black swan event.  “We should have updated our retail terms sooner, and we didn’t communicate proactively when this risk disclosure was added,” Armstrong wrote. “My deepest apologies.”

1/ There is some noise about a disclosure we made in our 10Q today about how we hold crypto assets. Tl;dr: Your funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they’ve always been.

— Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) May 11, 2022

Armstrong also talked about their self-custodial wallet solution (Coinbase Wallet) for those who prefer to store their own crypto. Their goal, he said, is to make the best custodial and self-custodial solutions in crypto.

Interestingly, some Twitter users did not respond to his post well. “Brian Armstrong claiming that our funds are safe is the biggest lie you can put out,” said one user. “So everything is coming under SEC command? So what happened to the core of Crypto (Decentralisation) concept?” asked another investor. Some others claimed that Coinbase had a history of stealing from customers.

Coinbase is one of the most popular platforms for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency, but it has had its fair share of controversies over the years. Users must wait and see if Coinbase will keep its promises.