Coinbase hires Monzo exec to head UK growth

Cryptocurrency exchange and trading firm Coinbase has hired an executive from neobank Monzo to head up its growth and operations in the UK.

Matt Smith will work in the company’s London office as Head of Operations and Expansion.

Prior to the move, he spent almost seven years at Monzo. He joined the company in 2018 as a Special Projects Manager, before becoming Chief of Staff and, later on, Senior Strategic Programme Manager.

His final three-and-a-half years at Monzo were spent as the bank’s Head of Operations Strategy.

Before joining Monzo, Smith worked as a consultant for eight years, initially at Accenture and then at Elixirr.

Coinbase employs over 200 people in the UK and close to 4,000 globally.

The crypto company gets the bulk of its web traffic from the US. However, the UK is its second-largest source of web traffic, according to SimilarWeb data.

The company recently acquired the Cypriot entity of Dutch broker BUX and has hired former XTB and IC Markets execs to run that firm.