Coinbase Plans Wall Street Hiring Spree for New Institutional-Focused NYC Office

Furthering its bid to cater to institutional cryptocurrency investors, Coinbase has inaugurated its New York office for Coinbase Institutional, with plans to rapidly expand to a staff of 150 by next year (to be acquired from Wall Street).

Describing New York as “an incredibly deep pool of talent” at an event celebrating the opening of its permanent NYC office last week, Coinbase Institutional’s general manager Adam White said:

“We have to create a bridge between financial services and technology. In order to do that, we need to pull from some of the best and brightest minds that have worked their whole careers in other kinds of traditional financial firms.”

Coinbase Institutional’s current staff of 20 specialists has been hired from established giants such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Barclays, and Citigroup – a staffing profile that is in line with the company’s plans for global expansion and bringing in institutional investors by offering custody solutions, trading services, and asset management. Its office also boasts a security staff that is comparable to the NYSE’s.

In addition, the crypto exchange (which has already made a series of high-profile hirings this year and has ambitions of becoming the “NYSE of cryptocurrencies”) has also begun its foray into Asia, having set up an office in Tokyo earlier this year.

Recently, Coinbase joined forces with top crypto players such as Circle and Digital Currency Group to form an advocacy group called the Blockchain Association. This group will be responsible for representing the interests of the cryptocurrency industry before US regulators and lawmakers. Earlier this month, there were also reports that Coinbase was planning a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF).