May be, but do not be blinded by connections. Sometimes people are let go, rather than left. And just because you worked for Coinbase does not mean you are good,,, I know for example so many people working for Big Four consultants like Ernst & Young or Deloitte,,, and they are supposedly experts in blockchain now but seriously I heard their presentations and read their writings and they are equal to writers at CoinIdol or something like that. Most of the Staff on this forum know things many times better!
At least that gives a clue if they are having a connection with coinbase.
It makes sense to see that, and AFAIK fred ehrsam has created a lot of investments in the icos just like cryptokitties, oasislab and many more. A lot of staff in this forum has actively watching blockchain from the start of bitcoin.
I thought that even theymos knew that who satoshi nakamoto is.