Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, recently deleted most of his older tweets. In a turn of events, the WayBackMachine, a comprehensive digital archive on the World Wide Web, has deleted the tweets from its records, sparking a flurry of speculation. Some observers have linked this to the ongoing Coinbase regulatory scrutiny, raising questions about the CEO’s intentions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently voiced concerns that the exchange might not entirely comply with the regulations and laws. In its defense, Coinbase contends that the violations are not the result of deliberate attempts to break the law but rather are the result of unclear regulatory guidance.
Digging up Armstrong’s past tweets
In a series of tweets by pro-Bitcoin tweeter Pledditor, he explained that he was looking to establish links through other archival services to all Armstrong’s tweets that have been deleted. In addition, the thread would focus only on tweets with verifiable archive links and those between 2015 and 2018, calling them “spicy takes.”
The tweet discovered a wide range of topics that the Coinbase CEO had posted on, including controversial takes on the future of the crypto industry and Coinbase itself. In a post from 2015, Armstrong advocated for the increase in bitcoin’s blocksize, which he also highlighted in another tweet that year, as he announced that Coinbase was running on the controversial BitcoinXT. Following the announcement, he explained his frustration with the community’s backlash to Coinbase’s support in raising the blocksize.
Armstrong bragged that there was diversion and inclusion at Coinbase in an August 2017 tweet. However, a NY Times report from 2020 discussed the many internal complaints of discriminatory treatment at Coinbase. Some employees expressed their concerns to the manager, including exclusion from meetings and conversions, before they eventually left the company.
In a December 2017 tweet, the day before Charlie Lee, the Coinbase engineer, announced selling all his Litecoin, Armstrong tweeted on publishing Coinbase’s employee trading policy. It’s worth noting that Coinbase’s Product Manager was recently charged with insider trading on Coinbase’s listing process.
Later, he hyped up a 4% ETH pump after it was listed on the exchange. He posted 5-minute charts, moon emojis, and rocketship emojis. Another tweet mentioned claims that Tether was not fully collateralized and shills USDC. However, Coinbase would list USDT anyway, and ironically, USDC was exposed to Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, which both failed.
According to some observers, Armstrong deleted previous tweets to reduce any potential abuse or misinterpretation of his earlier public statements in light of current regulatory scrutiny. However, this is only speculative, and Armstrong has not publicly stated the reasons behind the extensive erasure.
Crypto CEOs have a history of deleted tweets
Regarding his social media, Armstrong is not the only CEO in the crypto space that has deleted controversial tweets in the past.
A list of tweets removed by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was put together by the digital asset information platform The Tie in November 2022. The information found included potentially damaging tweets he wrote in the past, such as a series of tweets declaring that FTX and its assets were fine on November 7.
Then, in April of this year, Justin Sun’s exchange Poloniex posted many tweets announcing a giveaway of an “SEC-focused token” before deleting them after receiving complaints from Twitter users and cryptocurrency lawyers. Sun acknowledged the SEC case in a later interview, stating he anticipates a resolution and doesn’t perceive it as a major issue. For some reason, Sun also declined to assert ownership of Huobi, claiming instead that he was just a consultant and committee member but was not involved in day-to-day operations.
