Coinbase's New NYC Office to Hire 100 in Wall Street Crypto Push

Crypto industry unicorn Coinbase has aggressive growth plans for its newly opened New York office, which caters to institutional clients.

AccessTimeIconSep 15, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 13, 2021 at 8:23 a.m. UTC
10 Years of Decentralizing the Future
May 29-31, 2024 - Austin, TexasThe biggest and most established global hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3.Register Now

The crypto industry unicorn Coinbase has aggressive growth plans for its newly opened New York office, which caters to institutional clients.

The digital asset exchange plans to expand the operation to 150 employees next year, from 20 currently. According to the company, the slump in cryptocurrency prices this year has not quelled institutional demand for this asset class.

"When we saw the market begin to correct, which we all expected, institutions didn't lose interest," Adam White, general manager of Coinbase Institutional, told CoinDesk. "It was exactly the opposite."

He added:

"They look at it as an opportunity to enter when things are not too frothy."

Many of the local staff members were hired away from traditional financial institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange, Barclays, and Citigroup.

New York "is an incredibly deep pool of talent," White said during an event Thursday celebrating the opening of its first permanent location in the city (it previously had employees working out of a WeWork there).

"We have to create a bridge between financial services and technology," he went on. "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."

Institutional and retail

To make corporate clients comfortable when they visit, the office has a security staff comparable to the NYSE's, according to Coinbase's co-head of institutional sales, Christine Sandler, who previously worked at the Big Board.

And yet, Sandler said Coinbase's institutional custody, asset management, and trading services shouldn't be seen as conflicting with its previous focus on retail investors. To the contrary, in her mind, institutional distribution is the key to mainstream adoption.

"We want to partner with appropriate institutions to help the whole ecosystem grow," she told CoinDesk. "It's not 'institutional or retail,' because a lot of these institutions will be distributors."

Stepping back, Coinbase as a company has been on a hiring spree all through the 2018 bear market, and now has more than 500 employees worldwide. And New York isn't the only new office attracting institutional clients and recruits.

Coinbase is looking to "light up more countries and more fiat rails" with an eye on expansion in Asia and Latin America "pretty quickly," White said. Coinbase already started establishing an office in Tokyo this summer, hiring a small team and applying for a Financial Services Agency certification in Japan.

"We're committed to not being a U.S. company," White said.

Photo courtesy of Coinbase: Adam White of Coinbase Institutional (R), New York City Economic Development Corporation CEO James Patchett, and Coinbase chief compliance officer Jeff Horowitz (L)

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.