--- title: Coinbase Is One of the 2021 TIME100 Most Influential Companies description: Find out why Coinbase was selected for the inaugural list canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-04-27T01:41:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:49:35.029Z og:title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Coinbase og:description: Find out why Coinbase is on the inaugural list og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ef84fb795b58/698a18eb97cdff84486bbde1/coinbase-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Coinbase og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Coinbase twitter:description: Find out why Coinbase is on the inaugural list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ef84fb795b58/698a18eb97cdff84486bbde1/coinbase-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 27, 2021 # Coinbase Shoring up crypto’s credibility by [Alex Fitzpatrick](https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/) ## Alex Fitzpatrick  Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, at the company's main office in San Francisco on August 7, 2017. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, at the company's main office in San Francisco on August 7, 2017.Winni Wintermeyer—Redux It’s been a huge year for [cryptocurrencies](https://time.com/tag/cryptocurrency/), but nothing’s been as validating as the April 14 direct listing of Coinbase, which operates an exchange where 56 million users buy and sell [Bitcoin](https://time.com/5486673/bitcoin-venezuela-authoritarian/) and more. Coinbase ended its first day of trading worth nearly $86 billion—making it the most valuable U.S. financial exchange, and giving cryptocurrencies a boost of Wall Street cred. For the moment, Coinbase is riding the high of surging interest in all things even remotely crypto-adjacent, but its value may come tumbling back to earth should crypto turn out to be a bubble. _TIME is now accepting cryptocurrency for subscriptions to_ [_time.com_](http://time.com/)_._ [_Learn more_](https://time.com/subscribe/primary-crypto/?utm%5Fmedium=&utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fcampaign=hodl+default+al&utm%5Fcontent=+++20210419+++edit-tout)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/"},"headline":"Coinbase","datePublished":"2021-04-27T01:41:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:49:35.029Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ef84fb795b58/698a18eb97cdff84486bbde1/coinbase-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Fitzpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/"}],"creator":"Alex Fitzpatrick","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa5ef84fb795b58/698a18eb97cdff84486bbde1/coinbase-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5957220/coinbase-2/","name":"Coinbase"}}]}] ```