Across the market for digital coins, cryptocurrency exchanges are building out and staffing up to meet surging demand.

Coinbase, which is one of the best-known cryptocurrency companies, told Business Insider it’s looking to double its staff from 250 to 500 in 2018.

“We are hiring a bunch of different executives at the company,” he said. “It’s part of the scaling effort.”

Coinbbase’s latest hire has caused a stir.

This week Coinbase hired a top executive from the New York Stock Exchange, according to a blog post out Thursday.

Eric Scro is set to join the San Francisco company as its vice president of finance. Previously, Mr Scro was the head of finance at the New York Stock Exchange.

Count this as a sign that Coinbase is snagging talent to build itself into the Google of crypto.

Mr Scto had been with the exchange operator since 2009, according to his LinkedIn page.

In a statement on the new hire, Coinbase said: “Eric will be focused on helping serve institutional clients and deal with the increasingly complex financial and regulatory requirements of the business.”

The hire is especially striking considering a statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that said certain online crypto-trading platforms like Coinbase would have to register with the US agency.

Currently, crypto exchanges answer to State-level regulators in the US.
Coinbase general manager Don Romero said the exchange would hire more c-level executives, who he hopes will help transform the company into a behemoth in the space.

In January, Coinbase hired former Twitter executive Tina Bhatnagar to grow the company’s customer support team.

“We’re trying to build a Google-like company for the cryptocurrency space.”

 

his article first appeared on Business Insider Australia, Australia’s most popular business news website. Read the original article. Follow Business Insider on Facebook or Twitter.