Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is $2 billion richer on election stock pop

Election Day proved to be extremely successful for the crypto industry. No one was a bigger winner than Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Coinbase shares rose 31% on Wednesday, their best day on record, as investors celebrated the company’s winning efforts to put pro-crypto candidates into office. Fairshake, the Coinbase-backed PAC, says that of the 58 candidates it supports, 46 have won and the remaining 12 contests are still undecided.

Armstrong, who co-founded Coinbase in 2012 and took it public in 2021, remains the crypto exchange’s largest investor with well over 10% of the company’s outstanding shares. At the time of the last proxy filing, he owned 34.8 million Class A and B shares, a holding that rose in value by about $2.1 billion to nearly $9 billion on Wednesday.

“Being anti-crypto is just bad politics,” Armstrong wrote in a post

In a lengthy follow-up post on Wednesday, Armstrong said: “No matter how you judge it, this election was a huge victory for crypto.”

Bitcoin rose over 9.5% to reach a record high of over $76,400.

A Coinbase spokesperson declined further comment.

Around $40 million in cryptocurrency was earmarked for defeating Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. A PAC paid for five ads aimed at raising awareness of Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur with very little name recognition who is entering the race.

The Stand With Crypto Alliance, which Coinbase launched last year, gave Brown an “F” grade while giving Moreno an “A.”

According to NBC News, Moreno flipped the seat, winning 50.3% of the votes cast while Moreno received 46.3%. His victory helped secure Republicans a majority in the Senate, along with Republican candidate Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race.

“I am so grateful to Ohioans for their tremendous support in this race,” Moreno said in a statement Tuesday night. “I look forward to working with the new Republican majority in the Senate to repair our economy, secure our border, and return to American strength at home and abroad.”

Moreno’s statement made no mention of crypto, even though the industry funded his campaign.

For Armstrong, politics has become an important part of his work as his company fights for a friendlier Washington and a more amenable regulatory environment.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler sued Coinbase last year over allegations that the company was selling unregistered securities. A judge has since ruled that the case should be tried by a jury. Coinbase has vociferously defended itself and also stated that it wants to work with regulators to craft an appropriate law to regulate the emerging industry.

Armstrong told CNBC in September that his visits to the nation’s capital used to occur once or twice a year. Then it had to be at least a quarterly event. And the pace has only increased.

“In the beginning, a lot of people didn’t know what crypto was,” Armstrong said of his previous travels. Now, “has the discussion actually progressed to how can we adopt clear rules and create laws in the United States?”

In the 2024 election cycle, Coinbase was one of the largest corporate donors, giving more than $75 million to Fairshake and its affiliated PACs, including a new $25 million commitment to support the crypto-friendly super PAC in the 2026 midterm elections. Armstrong has personally donated more than $1.3 million to a mix of candidates across all ballots.

Coinbase stayed out of the presidential campaign and focused its finances solely on congressional races to bring together a group of lawmakers with positive views on the industry.

Coinbase’s strong post-election rebound more than offsets the stock’s 15% decline last week after the company reported disappointing quarterly results due to lower transaction revenue and a decline in subscription services revenue.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, attended several fundraising events for Trump in the months leading up to the election. As the results emerged Tuesday, Grewal said in a post on X that he hoped the SEC “understands what happened tonight.”

“Stop suing crypto,” Grewal wrote. “Start talking crypto. Initiate rulemaking now. There’s no reason to wait.”

Armstrong reposted Grewal’s comments and added his own word: “True.”

REGARD: The next congress will be the “largest pro-crypto congress” ever