Quick take:
- Coinbase plans to fill core roles in Europe.
- The crypto exchange recently secured regulatory registration in Italy and the Netherlands.
- Coinbase VP of international and business development Nana Murusegan said that international expansion is an “existential priority.”
Coinbase has hired Daniel Seifert, the former chief operating officer of German fintech company, Solarisbank AG, to lead expansion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Bloomberg first reported.
Siefert joins Coinbase after more than two years as the part-time managing director of Solaris Digital Assets GmbH and full-time COO of Solarisbank AG. He held these roles from 2020-2022.
As managing director of Solaris Digital Assets GmbH, he was responsible for compliance, HR, customer support, risk management, finance, and legal of Solarisbank’s subsidiary Solaris Digital Assets GmbH, which provides API-based custody for digital assets.
As Solarisbank’s COO, he was responsible for all banking processes, the scaling and further development of the operations domain and, by extension, also for further strategic operations initiatives.
Prior to Solaris, Seifert was head of operations & customer support at UBS. Before that, he spent almost a decade at global management consulting McKinsey & Company, where he began his career. There, he spent five years as a senior associate helping global banks define and implement both business and IT strategy, and another nearly five years as associate partner, helping financial institutions on digital transformation and digital strategy.
In his new role as vice president & regional managing director, EMEA at Coinbase, Seifert will partner with the exchange’s vice president of international and business development Nana Murusegan to make Europe a leading location for web3 and crypto.
Coinbase has recently secured regulatory registration in Italy and the Netherlands and plans to fill core roles on the continent. Speaking to Bloomberg, Murusegan said: “International expansion is an existential priority for us. Whether it’s a bull market or bear market, that’s where most of our upside is.”
Murusegan added that Coinbase is eyeing expansion to France and Spain next year pending regulatory approvals and is also seeking registration in Ireland and the UK about joining their cryptoasset regulatory regimes.
According to Bloomberg, Murusegan said Coinbase began recruiting for Seifert’s position earlier this year just as the bear market began. The new hire comes as major crypto firms have been seeing leadership changes as top executives have either been poached by competing platforms or resigned.
Last week, Kraken hired Gemini’s former head of UK, Blair Halliday, to for the same role in the company while Gillian Lynch took over Halliday’s board seat. In the same week, Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss stepped down as the company’s director of Europe, coinciding with the company being granted virtual asset service provider (VASP) registration in the Republic of Ireland. Gemini’s co-founders and billionaire twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss continue as President and CEO at Gemini
In September, Binance poached Kraken’s former chief compliance officer Steven Christie as it aims to manage complex compliance issues the crypto industry faces. During the same period, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell revealed plans to step down from his role as CEO but will become chairman of the board of directors.
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