An Early Employee Leaves Crypto Exchange Giant Coinbase

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said their fifth employee and head of its institutional platform group, Adam White, is departing the company.

The firm said yesterday that Jonathan Kellner, the ex-CEO of Insinet, would be taking over the bulk of White’s work. Kellner was recently hired as Coinbase’s managing director of its institutional business.

A company spokesperson noted how Coinbase was sad to see White leave, but expressed confidence in:

“That group’s ability to keep executing on the vision that he laid out to be the most trusted venue for institutional investors to trade cryptocurrencies.”

Before coming onto Coinbase back in 2013, White served in the U.S. Air Force and worked at Bain & Co.

According to Bloomberg, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong remarked in an email how “Adam helped us build our exchange business into the largest U.S.-based crypto-trading venue, and was integral to growing Coinbase’s global presence and scaling our culture to multiple offices”

The Coinbase Expansion Continues

The personnel move by Coinbase comes at an important time for the company. Recent activity seems to signify the California-based startup is angling to secure clients in the institutional world.

Just two days ago, the company announced that Chris Dodds, a Charles Schwab board of directors member, would be coming onto the Coinbase board.

Armstrong wrote on the Coinbase blog how the acquisition of Dodds would be an “Asset to the Coinbase leadership team as we focus on scaling our business.”

CCN reported in September how Coinbase agreed to team up with Circle and the Digital Currency Group to launch the Blockchain Association, a Washington D.C. lobbying group.

The idea is to encourage companies to work with policymakers on variety of issues, including taxation definitions, and anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations

Valuation Will Hit $8 Billion?

A U.K. hedge fund called Tiger Global is reportedly mulling over a $500 million dollar investment into Coinbase, potentially boosting the company’s value to near $8 billion.

The $8-billion-dollar figure is said to be the same valuation the company applied to itself when they purchased Earn.com earlier in the year. Just last summer, Coinbase was seen as close to a $1.5-billion-dollar company. However, this valuation came before a sharp uptick in consumer interest into cryptocurrencies that lasted until the end of the year.

Business for Coinbase has waned somewhat due to turbulent market conditions in 2018.

But previous coverage from CCN noted how Armstrong and other company leaders remain resolute about a business strategy that is about opening up the global financial system, and not necessarily focused on short-term trade volume.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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