(BlockBar) Asiff Hirji, chief operating officer and president of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase who served the firm as chief executive since 2017, has left the cryptocurrency exchange. Coinbase has named Emilie Choi as his successor . Hirji previously worked at TD Ameritrade Holdings Corp that has seen the exchange lose its first-ever chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan.
Hirji joined the cryptocurrency exchange in December 2017 when Bitcoin reached its peak price of nearly $20,000. This benefited the exchange as it recorded its biggest trading demand since its inception in 2012.
Asiff was announced as the COO by Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong on Dec. 1, 2017. Armstrong talked about Hirji’s departure: “His experience and mentorship helped guide Coinbase through an important chapter in its history.”
Emilie Choi has been named as Hirji’s successor who has been serving as the firm’s vice president of business, data, and international. Choi worked closely with the CEO (Armstrong) in scouting for potential acquisitions and partnerships. According to an unnamed source she played an instrumental role in the exchange’s last funding round. To be noted, Choi started her tech career at Yahoo! Inc. she helped the company make its way to China as she had a stint at LinkedIn.
This trend of departures has left many wondering if this has anything to do with the direction the firm is taking. But Coinbase asserts that everything is Coinbase argues that everything is going well in its camp and the figures speak for themselves.
The exchange accounts for more than 50 percent of the trading volume of America’s licensed crypto trading platforms. This figure had grown from only 17 percent two years ago. Coinbase has $1 billion in crypto under its custody solution.
It is worth noting that the cryptocurrency exchange went on a hiring spree last year and came onboard Balaji Srinivasan as the firm’s first-ever CTO in what was widely seen as an acqui-hire. The firm also lost Adam White, Dan Romero, and Christine Sandler. The trio provided great direction for the exchange’s institutional offerings.
