This article is from www.blocknews.com.br and the original article can be read here in Portuguese
Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has hired the country manager for Brazil. It will be Flavio Tonetto Plein, who has been through PicPay and Uber. The information is from the state agency. As Blocknews anticipated in late February, the exchange was seeking an executive for its local operation.
In addition, the North American exchange is in negotiation with 2TM, to buy part or all of Mercado Bitcoin. This should be one of the executive’s tasks. Tonetto must be part of the team that handles the negotiations. A Brazilian crypto industry executive, who last year spoke with Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, told Blocknews that he heard from him that to enter Brazil, the ideal way would be to make an acquisition. So don’t start from scratch in a multi-company market.
About a month ago, the company had 130 openings in Brazil, including engineers and designers. But like all technology companies, especially blockchain companies, they were having trouble finding people.
Marcello Azambuja was in charge of Coinbase in Brazil, who since November is Coinbase’s director of engineering and site lead in the country.
Coinbase sought country manager with IT and fintech experience
In the country manager description, Coinbase said that the candidate would need to have experience founding or being CEO of a technology company, fintech or other business in Latin America. This is because the exchange also wants to expand in the region and the country manager will take care of that as well. Furthermore, it should have taken this business to at least US$100 million in revenue or 10 million monthly transactions/100 million monthly active users.
Coinbase wants to grow in Latin America through strategic partnerships in the region. This includes, for example, mergers and acquisitions and investments in startups.