Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is meeting with President-elect Donald Trump on Monday to discuss "personnel appointments," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Trump has quickly filled cabinet positions over the past week, including tapping bitcoin-friendly former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy for Secretary of Health and Human Services and picking SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Strive Enterprises co-founder Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency. All three have also been friendly toward crypto.
Trump has yet to pick who to nominate as Treasury Secretary and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission — both of which would have major implications for the crypto industry. CEO of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and bitcoin fan Howard Lutnick, is one potential pick for Treasury Secretary, according to news reports.
Lutnick's firm has been a custodian for Tether and Lutnick has publicly backed up Tether over its reserves. USDT, the world's largest stablecoin, is pegged one-to-one with the greenback and holds reserves in U.S. Treasurys, bitcoin and gold, Lutnick said at Bitcoin 2024 over the summer.
Coinbase did not respond to a request for comment asking about the meeting on Monday. Coinbase has reportedly been working with Trump's transition team to set up a conversation between Lutnick and Armstrong, according to reporting from The New York Times last week.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also said he had spoken with people close to Trump about personnel appointments and executives at Circle have also spoken with Trump's transition team, according to NYT, citing people familiar with those conversations.
Circle and Ripple did not respond to requests for comment.
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