Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III — Board Member Accountability Profile
Category: Private Citizen — Corporate Director Role: Co-Founder and Director, Coinbase Global Inc. Board Tenure: 2013 (March) – present Committee Memberships: Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee Profile Type: Board Member Accountability — Anchor B (Documented Organizational Leadership)
Basis for Inclusion: Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III holds a documented governance role at Coinbase Global Inc. as its co-founder and a continuing board director. Coinbase Global Inc. is the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange and made documented political donations to Trump-aligned entities. Coinbase’s business is critically affected by SEC and CFTC crypto regulation, which the Trump administration has actively shaped in ways favorable to the industry through regulatory appointments and executive orders. This profile documents the factual governance relationship, not the subject’s personal political views.
Subject Classification: Private Citizen / Corporate Director. Board membership is a matter of public record.
What is NOT the basis for inclusion: Personal political opinions, party affiliation, or protected speech are NOT the basis for inclusion.
Biographical Overview
Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III (known as Fred Ehrsam) is a co-founder of Coinbase, having started the company alongside Brian Armstrong in 2012. He served as President of Coinbase from its founding through 2017, building out the exchange’s core products and operations during the formative period of the cryptocurrency industry. Before Coinbase, Ehrsam was a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs. After stepping back from day-to-day operations at Coinbase, Ehrsam co-founded Paradigm, a cryptocurrency-focused investment firm that has become one of the largest and most influential venture capital funds in the blockchain space, with investments spanning major crypto protocols, exchanges, and infrastructure companies. His position at Paradigm and continued board membership at Coinbase place him at the intersection of crypto investment, governance, and industry policy.
Board Role and Governance Authority
- Company: Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN)
- Board tenure: March 2013 – present (co-founder)
- Committee assignments: Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee
Other Current Board Memberships (if applicable)
- General Partner and Co-Founder, Paradigm (major crypto venture capital firm)
Parent Corporate Donor Profile
This profile is a governance-accountability companion to the Coinbase Global corporate donor profile.
Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.
Investigative trail pointers (public records)
Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.
| Channel | Starting points |
|---|---|
| Federal courts | CourtListener / PACER party and attorney searches (spelling variants) |
| Campaign finance | FEC + OpenSecrets for committees and donors tied to documented roles |
| Corporate / LLC | State secretary of state; OpenCorporates for cross-border shells from reporting |
| Sanctions / PEP | OpenSanctions when international business context is already sourced |
| Contracts / grants | USAspending.gov for named entities from investigations |
Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.
Sources
- Coinbase Global Inc. DEF 14A Proxy Statement, filed April 25, 2025; SEC EDGAR (CIK 1679788)
- SEC EDGAR filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000167978825000070/coin-20250425.htm