Coinbase has appointed longtime engineer Rob Witoff as its new chief expertise officer.
The appointment was introduced by CEO Brian Armstrong, who praised Witoff’s contributions to the corporate’s development, describing him because the driving power behind making Coinbase “one of the AI-enabled firms on this planet.”
From early Bitcoin builder to CTO
Witoff revealed that he has formally begun his “subsequent tour of responsibility” as Coinbase’s CTO, reflecting on a journey that began together with his fascination for Bitcoin in 2009 and led him to hitch the crypto change as an engineer in 2014.
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Trying again on Coinbase’s early days, Witoff famous that the corporate initially ran on Heroku, supported only a single cryptocurrency, and operated from one codebase with a small engineering staff. Regardless of the dramatic transformation over the previous 12 years, he mentioned the corporate’s core tradition has remained unchanged, describing Coinbase as a staff that continues to “relentlessly ship” merchandise in pursuit of its mission.
. He added that his mission as CTO is to make Coinbase “the very best place on this planet to construct.”
Armstrong highlights AI management
Armstrong welcomed the appointment by emphasizing Witoff’s position in shaping Coinbase’s engineering group and AI technique.
In keeping with the Coinbase CEO, Witoff has performed a significant position within the firm’s success through the years and has been central to its emergence as one of many world’s most AI-focused expertise firms. Armstrong added that Coinbase is lucky to have him taking on the CTO place as the corporate enters its subsequent section of development.
Witoff’s promotion comes amid one of the important durations of organizational change in Coinbase’s latest historical past.
The chief first rejoined Coinbase in December 2024 as Head of Platform and a member of the manager staff after beforehand serving as the corporate’s chief architect and later founding safety startup Unit 410, which Coinbase acquired. On the time, President and COO Emilie Choi described his return as a significant increase to the corporate’s platform engineering efforts.
An AI-first firm
In 2026, Coinbase accelerated its transformation into what Armstrong has referred to as an “AI-first” firm. In Could, the change introduced a restructuring that included slicing roughly 700 staff, or roughly 14% of its international workforce, whereas flattening administration layers and reorganizing groups round AI-assisted improvement.
The management shake-up continued in July when Chief Authorized Officer Paul Grewal introduced his departure after six years main Coinbase’s authorized technique and its high-profile regulatory battles.

