MoonPay's COO is an ex-Coinbase executive

MoonPay plans to announce Wednesday that it has hired former Coinbase Global Inc. executive Asiff Hirji as its president and COO. 

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With the company's push into the nonfungible token market, Hirji aims to continue the company's growth. From 2017 to 2019, Hirji served as president and CEO of coin exchange Coinbase, as well as president and COO of blockchain financial services firm Figure Technologies Inc. Prior to moving into his new role, Hirji served as president and COO of cryptocurrency exchange Figure Technologies Inc. According to him, he joined MoonPay because he feels MoonPay has the ability to help bring digital assets to the mainstream, despite the downturn in the market and concerns from legislators about the future of the industry. 

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Hirji also acknowledged that there is still a long way to go in the industry. “As far as I am concerned, the only thing we've proven so far in the crypto space is that we're better at fraud than any other company," he said. 

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The Miami-based company MoonPay offers customers the convenience of buying and selling cryptocurrency using a credit card, and they have recently expanded their offerings by offering NFTs as well. With the launch of its HyperMint platform in June, the company announced that it had partnered with major entertainment brands such as Fox Corp. and Universal Pictures for the creation of NFT collections. 

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In spite of the slumping sales of NFTs, Hirji believes that these assets will eventually eclipse other token types in terms of popularity as a result of their ability to connect artists and entertainment brands more directly with their fans as a consequence of their ability to connect them directly with their fans. In the long run, he believes that this will help broaden the use of blockchain among average consumers, which will lead to greater adoption. 

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“Financial services will not be the breakthrough use case due to the regulatory environment,” he said. “It's going to be part of the culture." 

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In the midst of layoffs at other high-profile crypto companies, MoonPay, which raised $555 million last year at a valuation of $3.4 billion, is actively hiring new employees along with the company. As of now, the company employs around 300 people, according to Hirji. Besides hiring Hirji last week, MoonPay also announced the appointment of Lindsey Haswell as its new chief legal officer last week. Previously, she had served in this position at Blockchain.com, a crypto firm where she had previously worked.

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