Billionaire Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says most charities are ‘net negative’—and that he has no plans to make his own foundation

Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire who has a contrarian view of philanthropy. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong admitted on a recently published episode of the Katie Miller Pod he doesn’t think charities have much of a positive impact on the world. 

“The common view is that philanthropy is like this noble cause,” said Armstrong, who is worth nearly $10 billion. “I guess I have sort of a contrarian view, which is like a lot of charities and philanthropies are actually net negative on the world, and they get captured.”

He went on to argue it’s “remarkably hard to find” a philanthropic organization that hasn’t gotten captured by ideology and hasn’t had unintended consequences on the world. Armstrong, the CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, gave the example of a hypothetical nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice reform that ultimately “just increased crime.”

Armstrong said his main fear about setting up a foundation is “that it just gets captured by some........

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