Brian Armstrong to meet with Donald Trump on staff: report

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will reportedly hold a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss key staff appointments.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s transition team facilitated the meeting. It could potentially shape decisions about critical roles affecting the crypto industry, including the Secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Crypto’s Role in Cabinet Appointments

Trump has already shown a clear interest in bringing cryptocurrency-friendly people into his administration, including recent appointees like Robert F. Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Given his campaign promises to the crypto community, whose financial muscle helped fill Congress with allies, Trump’s pending Treasury and SEC picks are of great interest.

While it remains unclear whether Armstrong will play a direct role in the new administration, there is speculation that he may have been tapped to help decide on the slate of candidates for the coveted position, which now includes Tennessee Sen. Bill Haggerty , policy advisor Kevin Warsh, investor Scott Bessent and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan.

Howard Lutnick, CEO of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a well-known proponent of Bitcoin, is also rumored to be a leading candidate for Treasury Secretary.

Reports suggest that Coinbase has facilitated discussions between Lutnick and Armstrong as part of Trump’s transition planning, potentially strengthening the crypto industry’s ties to the next administration.

However, it has also emerged that Lutnick’s aggressive lobbying for the Treasury post may have rubbed some of Trump’s advisers the wrong way, prompting a reconsideration of possible alternatives.

Coinbase Political Activism

Armstrong has been vocal about pro-crypto appointments in Trump’s cabinet, including the recent endorsement of SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to lead the regulatory agency.

His public statements are in line with Coinbase’s financial commitments during the election cycle that just ended. The exchange is said to have given more than $100 million to political action committees (PACs), including $40 million to Fairshake.

Although he did not directly contribute to Trump’s campaign, Armstrong has shown strong support for several of the president-elect’s policy initiatives, including DOGE, a position some have interpreted as the crypto executive’s willingness to work with the incoming administration .

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