Ex-Coinbase president joins crypto startup MoonPay as COO

DIGITAL asset startup MoonPay has appointed former Coinbase Global executive Asiff Hirji as its new president and chief operating officer (COO), the company plans to announce on Wednesday (Feb 22). Hirji aims to continue the company’s push into the non-fungible (NFT) token market.

Hirji, who stepped into his new role this month, previously served as a president of blockchain financial services firm Figure Technologies and was president and COO of crypto exchange Coinbase from 2017 until 2019. He said he joined MoonPay because he thinks the company is well positioned to help bring digital assets to mainstream consumers, despite the market downturn and concerns from lawmakers.

Hirji also acknowledged that the industry still has a long way to go. “The only thing we’ve proven in crypto so far is that we can do fraud better than anybody else,” he said.

Miami-based MoonPay aims to make it easy for customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with a credit card, and has recently broadened its offerings to include NFTs. The company announced in June that it was partnering with major entertainment brands like Fox and Universal Pictures to create NFT collections using its HyperMint platform.

Despite slumping sales for NFTs, Hirji said he thinks these assets will eventually outstrip other types of tokens in terms of popularity because of their ability to connect artists and entertainment brands more directly with fans. Ultimately, this will help broaden the use of blockchain among average consumers, he said.

“The regulatory environment is going to prevent the breakthrough use case from being in financial services,” he said. “It’s going to be in culture.”

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MoonPay, which raised US$555 million at a US$3.4 billion valuation last year, is actively hiring new employees amid layoffs at other high-profile crypto companies. It now has a team of around 300 people, Hirji said. In addition to hiring Hirji, MoonPay named Lindsey Haswell as its new chief legal officer last week. She had previously served in the same position at crypto firm Blockchain.com. BLOOMBERG