Armstrong’s Half-Billion Waltz: Coinbase’s Shocking Selloff

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In the glittering theater of numbers where fortunes flutter like startled moths around a pale, preening flame, Brian Armstrong-coinage’s own conjurer, co‑founder and CEO of Coinbase-began a brisk minuet with his own equity. Since April 2025 he has shed more than 1.5 million Coinbase shares, pocketing roughly $550 million, as if divesting not merely stock but a fragment of the very dream that gilded the crypto age.

Key Highlights

  • Armstrong sold over 1.5 million Coinbase shares since April 2025, generating approximately $550 million.
  • The disposals marched on through a merciless crypto swoon, with Bitcoin plunging 52% from its October 2025 peak of $126,198 to a nadir near $59,880, wiping away over $2 trillion in market value.
  • COIN shares have drifted to about $153.20 as of February 12, 2026, down roughly 60% from its 2021 listing-day close.

Armstrong, the co‑founder and chief executive with a talent for turning code into currency, has unloaded more than 1.5 million shares since April 2025, extracting approximately $550 million in proceeds. The numbers are less a ledger and more a flourish of a pianist’s wrist, precise even as the melody falters.

According to Bloomberg’s transaction data, amplified by Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s scholar of digital assets, this half‑billion‑dollar purge persisted even as COIN’s price pirouetted like a drunken comet. Sigel quipped that to buy now would be a “bold move,” delegating to Armstrong the honor of making the opening gesture.

I think I’m more of a “you go first, @brian_armstrong” kind of guy here.

– matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) February 11, 2026

Armstrong’s disposals, conducted through his living trust, form part of a pre‑arranged 10b5‑1 trading plan, a familiar maneuver allowing insiders to part with shares without stepping on the toes of securities laws. Yet the tempo and volume have invited scrutiny, especially as Coinbase readies its fourth‑quarter 2025 earnings, a moment when the market’s mood could not be described as buoyant or even buoyantly indifferent.

Analysts anticipate results that echo the broader market’s malaise: thinner trading volumes and dwindling ETF inflows gnawing at the company’s bottom line.

Armstrong’s selling amid broader drawdown

The outsized sales marched on through a harsh epoch for cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin’s 52% plunge from its October 2025 apogee of roughly $126,198 to frightening lows of around $59,880 by early February. Ether and Solana fared even worse, sliding 24% and 26% respectively in a single week, as if the universe conspired to re‑name volatility itself.

The latest retreat, begun in mid‑January, erased more than $2 trillion from the total crypto market capitalization. Waning retail interest, correlations with a faltering tech complex, and a deceleration in institutional adoption stood accused in the court of market fate.

Armstrong began selling in April 2025, when Coinbase traded above $300 and continued through July 2025, a period that even saw a new all‑time high of $444.65 on optimism about regulatory clarity and Bitcoin’s revival.

The peak cadence occurred in June 2025, when Armstrong sold 336,265 shares on June 25 at $355.37 apiece-netting over $119 million for a single flurry. The selling spree persisted into July, with notable disposals on July 14-16 as a cluster of trades that month swelled into hundreds of thousands of shares. By early January 2026, another 40,000 shares left his hands at $254.92, yielding a nine‑month tally of 88 separate sales and, alas, no recorded buys.

COIN Stock: Listing, History, and Current Price

Coinbase, born in 2012 of Armstrong’s ambition and Fred Ehrsam’s technical muse, grew into the largest U.S. crypto exchange, ascending on the wings of Bitcoin’s mainstream breakout. It made its market debut on April 14, 2021, via a direct Nasdaq listing that sidestepped the traditional IPO ritual.

The stock opened at $381 and leaped to an intraday high of $429 on its first day, valuing the company at well over $100 billion and marking a ceremonial milestone for the crypto industry. At the moment of narrative publication, COIN hovers around $153.20, down 5.37% in the last session, according to Yahoo Finance.

As of February 12, 2026, COIN has shed about 60% from its listing-day close, underperforming the broader markets yet outperforming many altcoins that cratered a median of 79% in 2025. With a market capitalization near $42 billion, Coinbase remains a bellwether for the crypto sector’s dramatic, occasionally operatic, saga.

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2026-02-12 16:04