Coinbase Hires Former NYSE Exec. in Effort to Become the “Crypto Google”

The popular SF-based Coinbase exchange has enlisted former head of finance at the New York Stock Exchange, Eric Scro, as its own new vice president of finance. Scro is making his exit from NYSE after 8.5 years.

“We are growing our institutional business rapidly and Eric’s experience and leadership will be invaluable in scaling the business and building out our New York office,” a blog post by Coinbase reads.

Coinbase Hires NYSE Finance Vet to Grow Enterprise Products https://t.co/7Ni41vcBwE pic.twitter.com/1FHfZ99AT2

— CoinDesk (@coindesk) March 8, 2018

Scro’s entrance into Coinbase may be considered as part of an effort to become what general manager Don Romero described to Business Insider as “a Google-like company for the cryptocurrency space.”

New Hires and New Plans

The addition of Scro to the Coinbase team is just one small part of a huge plan for expansion–Coinbase reportedly told Business Insider that the company intends to double its workforce from 250 to 500 individuals throughout this year. “We are hiring a bunch of different executives at the company. It’s part of the scaling effort,” said a company official. Most of those hires will reportedly be C-level executives.

This week, Coinbase also hired Emilie Choi, former LinkedIn vice president of Corporate Development, as vice president of Corporate and Business Development. Several weeks ago, Coinbase acquired Tina Bhatnagar, former Twitter executive, as the new VP of Operations and Technology.

The company also announced the launch of the Coinbase Index Fund earlier this week. Plans for a new product called ‘Coinbase Custody’ that will offer crypto storage for institutions are also underway.

Announcing Coinbase Index Fundhttps://t.co/ca98IKrzUv

— Coinbase (@coinbase) March 6, 2018

Coinbase Aims to ‘Excel’ at Compliance

The addition of Scro to the Coinbase team coincides with the SEC’s announcement that cryptocurrency exchanges must register with the agency. This is the first time that crypto exchanges in the US have had to answer to anything besides state governments.

Coinbase certainly is not exempt from this new rule–this shouldn’t be an issue for the company, however. The exchange has historically made efforts to be as compliant as possible, given the fact that a legal structure developed specifically for crypto hasn’t existed; Coinbase is the only exchange that is FDIC insured.

Says a Coinbase blog post from August 2016, “if we want a convenient way for people to move large amounts of money into digital currency, we need digital currency companies who embrace and excel at compliance.”