David Senra · Mar 1Brian Armstrong: When Washington Tried to Kill Coinbase
After Y Combinator partners pointed Armstrong to it, its compliance team flagged Coinbase as a possible money transmitter. A $30,000 legal opinion opened the account, and the bank later warned it would stop serving Coinbase as daily Bitcoin pre-buying drained cash.
Tips
- Armstrong paid 30,000 dollars for a legal opinion instead of a 5 to 10 million dollar license▶ 46:51He wrote the ACH integration himself and launched with product-market fit.
- Armstrong's team raised 25 million dollars in one week with a single demand graph▶ 49:10They raised about 25 million dollars from Union Square Ventures and Ribbit within a week.
