Coinbase Inc., one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the U.S., has hired Emilie Choi as its VP of corporate and business development. Choi was the head of mergers and acquisitions at LinkedIn for eight years where she led more than 40 deals. At Coinbase, she will also be leading mergers and acquisitions.
“There’s opportunity to look at talent acquisition where we’re picking up fantastic technical talent, to product and technology tuck-ins that will help add great features to our products, to actual businesses that we want to use to potentially consolidate user bases or functionality,” Choi said in a telephone interview. “In terms of what the number of deals will be I think that’s TBD. In terms of the activity we’re going to see given how exciting a time it is in crypto, there’s going to be a lot of interesting activity.”
Coinbase has a client base of more than 10 million and owns a digital wallet and trading platform. The company has been under growing strain as a huge inflow of clients — it added more than 100,000 accounts in just one day late last year — has caused outages and slowed down service. Coinbase has raised more than $217 million from venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Y Combinator. Now, it seems like the company is getting ready for expansion, and hiring Choi is one step to achieve that goal.
“Emilie’s deep experience leading world-class corporate development teams will help move Coinbase into new markets and opportunities globally by leveraging acquisitions, strategic investments, and partnerships,” Coinbase president and chief operating officer Asiff Hirji wrote in a blog post.
Coinbase is planning to increase its team strength to around 500 people by the end of this year. Among this taskforce, the company plans to hire some more c-level executives who will help transform the face of the organization.
