Brian

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told his followers on X that his posts do not serve as an endorsement of any kind. Regardless, traders ignored his “warnings” with many pushing back.&nbsp;
On July 20, Armstrong <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2079211558769697163" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">responded to the buzz</a> around his social media activity, particularly his profile picture, and reiterated the disclaimer on his X bio. He acknowledged the response from the Base community, adding that responses like these only go to show how much people care.&nbsp;
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-a-profile-picture-worth-tens-of-millions-span">A profile picture worth tens of millions</h3>
On July 16, Armstrong changed his profile picture on X from a CryptoPunk avatar to an art tied to $BRIAN, a Base memecoin sometimes referred to as “Coinbase Man”. The market cap of the token jumped $30 million to the $37 million range in mere hours: a move of ~3,000%. This obviously tested how much traders look to Armstrong for trade signals or investment advice because the only change that occurred was Armstrong’s change of profile picture.&nbsp;
When Armstrong changed his profile picture back to the CryptoPunk, the drop was just as fast. $BRIAN lost about 85% to 93% of its value in twenty-four hours, falling under the $5 million mark.&nbsp;
This did not alarm any regulator, nor did Coinbase release a company statement.&nbsp;
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-traders-wanted-more-not-less-span">Traders wanted more, not less</h3>
Traders have responded to Armstrong’s clarification. Rather than temper their expectations, traders are dissatisfied, accusing Armstrong of neglecting the community. <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2079224687297523773" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">He responded</a> to a user by asking, “What does commitment look like? Never change a profile photo again? Shill once per week?”&nbsp;
This isn’t exactly new to anyone who’s been tied to a Base memecoin. A token called <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/russell-musk-meme-influence-returns/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Russell</a>, themed on Armstrong’s Akita Inu dog, climbed 240% in a day after Elon Musk replied to an Armstrong family photo with a single fire emoji.&nbsp;
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-why-is-the-disclaimer-harder-for-armstrong-to-sell-span">Why is the disclaimer harder for Armstrong to sell?</h3>
Though Musk and Armstrong post about tokens, he and Musk are different in one respect. <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/floki-rallies-elon-musk-calls-it-ceo-of-x/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Musk moves tokens</a> that are typically not owned by his companies. Armstrong, on the other hand, moved $BRIAN a token that lives on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network (a blockchain built on top of Ethereum to lower fees) that Coinbase operates.&nbsp;
As CEO, Armstrong’s engagement with assets that his company owns is hard for traders to ignore.&nbsp;
This comes in the middle of the fallout from <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2079224488151962027" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coinbase’s failed bet</a> on turning attention to tokens. Coinbase’s content-coin push had, and Armstrong admitted so on July 13. He said to a critic, “We messed up, time to turn the page.”&nbsp;
He went on to state that Coinbase had turned its attention towards trading, payment, and agents. The ZORA token was the infrastructure behind the content-coin push, and it fell drastically by 95%.&nbsp;
The real question is whether Armdtrong’s disclaimer of “not investment advice” bears any meaning now, considering a mere change of profile pictures is enough to move a token by eight figures.
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Armstrong says his posts aren't endorsements. Traders ignore him anyway.

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