Coinbase is growing up fast — or at least trying to. As an emblem of its current effort to accommodate the massive demand on its platform, the mainstream U.S. cryptocurrency exchange just added Facebook Vice President of Messaging Products David Marcus to its board of directors. Coinbase announced the news in a post on Medium.
With unprecedented trading volumes and bitcoin at an astronomical all-time high, it’s a critical — and challenging — time for Coinbase. While Facebook and Coinbase may not share a lot of obvious overlap, bringing someone onto the team who has a hand in scaling software to massive proportions certainly can’t hurt.
“I’ve been involved with, and fascinated by cryptocurrencies since 2012, and I’ve witnessed how Coinbase has started democratizing access to this new asset class,” Marcus said in the Medium post. “I’m convinced that what the company is working on has the potential to materially change the lives of people around the world, and I’m looking forward to working with Coinbase and its leadership team to help make this vision a reality.”
Beyond his experience at Facebook, Marcus served as president of PayPal from 2012 to 2014. He joined PayPal after selling his mobile payments startup Zong to the company (owned by eBay) in 2011. Marcus will maintain his role at Facebook while serving in an advisory capacity at Coinbase.
“David brings first hand knowledge of building impactful, trusted mobile-first products at scale,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in the announcement. “His experience will add breadth and depth to the Coinbase board and will help the leadership team as the company focuses on becoming the most popular, and safest place to buy and sell digital currencies.”
Disclosure: The author holds a small position in some cryptocurrencies. It’s definitely not enough for a Lambo.
Taylor Hatmaker
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