Coinbase has announced that it will open an office in Portland, Oregon. According to a blog post on the company's website, a variety of cities in the United States had been studied before settling in Portland. The choice of the city of the west coast of the USA was based on the fact that it already had a vibrant Blockchain community.
"Talent is everywhere: we are going to open our new office in #portland this fall. After exploring a variety of cities in the United States, we were inspired by Portland's innovative open source and blockchain communities, "according to a tweet from the company.
In its new offices in Portland, Coinbase expects to hire up to 100 people from the town during this year.
"Our new Portland office will have a variety of business-related functions. We are currently hiring for functions focused on customer service, finance, regulatory compliance, IT and HR, and we expect to add up to 100 new jobs to the local economy this year alone, "wrote the vice president of operations and technology at Coinbase, Tina Bhatnagar, in an article published on a blog.
GDAX gives way to Coinbase Pro
The announcement regarding a new office in Portland comes as Coinbase prepares to transition from its GDAX platform to Coinbase Pro on Friday, June 29. After that transition, users can no longer access GDAX.com, but will be redirected to Coinbase Pro. When updating the platform, Coinbase revealed that the design of the new interface was aimed at active merchants.
The new office in Portland, which will focus on customer service, among other tasks, comes shortly after a week since it was reported that the firm's clients had filed complaints with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Coinbase has acknowledged in the past its limited pace of response to customer inquiries, an indication that the company's rapid expansion has been perhaps overwhelming.
Founded just six years ago, Coinbase now has more than 20 million users. Since its creation, a total of assets valued at USD $ 150,000 million have been negotiated through the platform. Last year, Coinbase generated revenues of USD $ 1 billion.
Recent Coinbase expansion measures include the opening of an office in Japan, allowing citizens and residents of the country to access their products and services. Nao Kitazawa, former chief operating officer of the investment advisory platform Money Design, was chosen to head Coinbase's Japanese operations.
Coinbase's efforts to launch in Japan began in July 2016 after raising approximately USD $ 10.5 million from investors in the Asian country. Among these investors were the Japanese bank Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and the financial services group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
Late last month, Coinbase also announced that it had acquired Paradex, the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, in a move that was presented as an expansion in the number of digital currency transactions customers could buy and sell on their platform. Coinbase currently offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, although recently announced the addition of Ethereum Classic.