Coinbase has appointed Anthony Armstrong, the former finance chief at Elon Musk’s xAI and X, to its board of directors, a move that comes as competition in the cryptocurrency industry shifts from trading volume toward control of the technologies underpinning 24/7 markets.

Increasingly, the ability to provide liquidity, settlement, custody, and regulatory mechanisms for trading beyond conventional market hours matters more than simply offering retail users a way to buy Bitcoin. U.S. equities have long traded on a limited-hours model, and the push to extend around-the-clock access to stocks and other assets has drawn in both crypto-native platforms and traditional exchanges. Coinbase is betting that Armstrong’s combination of Wall Street deal-making experience, government knowledge, and time inside Musk’s companies will strengthen its competitive position.

A board seat, an audit role, and a tenth chair

Coinbase publicly announced Armstrong’s appointment on September 2 in a company blog post. According to its SEC filing, the appointment took effect as of September 1. Armstrong will also serve on the Audit and Compliance Committee, the board body responsible for overseeing financial reporting and regulatory adherence—areas of heightened sensitivity for a company that gained SEC-regulated status through its 2021 direct listing. His addition expands the board from nine directors to ten.

The SEC filing further disclosed that Anthony Armstrong and Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s co-founder and CEO, are not related.

Coinbase highlighted Anthony Armstrong’s record of “building things that work at scale, without waste,” tying his arrival to the company’s emphasis on effective execution.

From Morgan Stanley deal tables to Musk’s balance sheets

Armstrong spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley, rising to vice chairman of investment banking after helping lead its global technology M&A business. He later served as a senior adviser at the Department of Government Efficiency before becoming CFO across xAI, X.AI Corp. and X Corp.

As Cryptopolitan reported in October 2025, Armstrong counseled Musk on the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and maintained a strong working relationship with him. Musk subsequently combined X with xAI in a deal valued at roughly $113 billion.

That background makes Armstrong more than a typical governance hire. Coinbase’s future may hinge on acquisitions, partnerships, and integrations across securities, crypto markets, and blockchain settlement—areas where his dealmaking experience could prove especially useful. His time at the Department of Government Efficiency also intersects with a period in which U.S. policy toward digital assets has been actively reshaped, adding a policy fluency dimension to the appointment.

Why an efficiency hire, and why now

The appointment arrives as Coinbase contends with weaker financial results and a sharp decline in its share price. According to The Block, COIN closed at $174.96 on September 2, down more than 40% from a year earlier.

Coinbase’s reporting shows a Q2 net loss of $359.5 million on revenue of $1.2 billion. Subscription and services revenues came in at $555.1 million, and the company stated that 88% of total revenue now comes from operations other than Bitcoin spot trading. Quartz noted that the company has missed Wall Street’s expectations for three consecutive quarters.

In its earnings release, Brian Armstrong summarized the new strategy, saying Coinbase is “no longer a bet just on the price of Bitcoin.”

The everything exchange, and the race for the rails

Coinbase’s “everything exchange” strategy is steadily blurring the line between a crypto exchange and a broader multi-asset financial platform. The company has rolled out U.S. stock and ETF trading and prediction markets, and has outlined plans around tokenized assets, pre-IPO perpetual futures, unified liquidity, and an SEC-registered AI investment adviser, as Cryptopolitan previously reported.

The opportunity is already visible in the data. CoinGecko found that TradFi/RWA perpetual trading volume reached $347.17 billion in May 2026, up from just $230 million at the start of 2025.

Still, regulation and market structure may matter as much as product breadth. The World Federation of Exchanges has warned that fragmented tokenized-equity markets could weaken liquidity and price discovery.

Traditional exchanges are moving into the same territory. Reuters reported that London Stock Exchange Group is partnering with Kraken parent Payward on tokenized UK shares, with xStocks planned for its 24-hour LSE 24 venue in 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

That sharpens Coinbase’s strategic challenge. Winning the 24/7 market may depend less on listing the most assets than on owning the regulated rails that allow capital to move between them continuously. For investors and observers, the signals to watch are whether Armstrong’s dealmaking background translates into new acquisitions or partnerships, and how quickly Coinbase’s diversification shows up in its results.