Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has heaped reward on Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in his latest social media publish.
The Ethereum whitepaper was revealed 12 years in the past at this time.
Ethereum modified the course of crypto by giving builders higher instruments – together with a Turing full language!
Shoutout to @VitalikButerin, the Ethereum co-founders, and the whole Ethereum group. So most of the…
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) November 27, 2025
Naturally, the publish didn’t sit effectively with Bitcoin maximalists, who have been fast to explain Ethereum as “centralized pseudo-money” and “fiat.”
No it was a step backwards. Reliance on a centralized banking system determine, CEO, basis or group is centralization and no totally different than fiat.
All centralization will finish the identical. Corruption. Greed. And inflation.
Ethereum is centralized pseudo cash.
— Metteyya (@therealmetteyya) November 27, 2025
Diverging paths
The primary recognized assembly between Armstrong and Buterin occurred in 2013 at a Bitcoin convention in San Jose. On the time, Buterin was writing for Bitcoin Journal. Armstrong later recalled that he discovered Buterin’s writing spectacular.
Some months later, Armstrong invited Buterin to go to the brand new first workplace of Coinbase (which Armstrong co-founded and runs) in San Francisco.
The Coinbase group was , they usually thought-about hiring Buterin. However issues didn’t work out as a result of Buterin was unable to get a U.S. work visa. This visa concern compelled him to return to Canada.
In Canada, Buterin revealed the white paper for Ethereum to nice fanfare. The revolutionary doc laid out the muse for good contracts, decentralized functions, and a programmable blockchain past easy digital foreign money.
Through the years, each males have been acknowledged among the many “prime younger influencers” in crypto/tech. In 2017, Armstrong and Buterin each appeared within the influential record Fortune “40 Beneath 40.”
Controversial itemizing
Ethereum, after its 2015 launch, shortly grew into the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Coinbase had constructed a fame as a number one U.S.-based crypto alternate, initially targeted on Bitcoin buying and selling. Nevertheless, Ethereum was first listed on Coinbase in July 2016.
The itemizing of Ethereum on Coinbase proved to be extraordinarily controversial amongst Bitcoin maximalists.
