Brian Armstrong Gives Ultimatum to Lawyers, Vows to Break Ties With Any That Hire Employees With Anti-Crypto Past

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong thinks crypto companies shouldn’t work with law firms that hire former regulators who policed the digital asset space during the Biden Administration.

Armstrong blasted the law firm Milbank LLP for hiring Gurbir S. Grewal, a former director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Grewal brought more than 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms in his time as an SEC regulator.

Armstrong says Coinbase will never work with Milbank while Grewal is employed at the firm.

“We’ve let all the law firms we work with know, that if they hire anyone who committed these bad deeds in the (soon to be) prior administration, we will no longer be a client of theirs.

Senior partners at these law firms seem unaware of the crypto industry’s position on this.”

Armstrong claims the restrictions he’s advocating for don’t count as “cancel culture,” however.

“It’s an ethics violation in my book to try and unlawfully kill an industry while refusing to publish clear rules. If you were senior there, you cannot say you were just following orders. They had the option to leave the SEC and many good people did. It was not a normal SEC tenure.

They can go work in other areas (I don’t believe in permanently canceling people), but we as an industry should not be putting money in their pocket after the abuse. Let your law firms know that hiring these folks means losing you as a client.”

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