Coinbase Hires Senior LinkedIn Executive as VP of Data

The digital asset exchange continues its high-profile hiring streak with its latest acquisition from LinkedIn – Michael Li, who will serve as data VP.

Major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase continues to expand its management staff with the latest addition to its leadership team – Michael Li, former LinkedIn head of analytics and data science, who has now joined as vice president (VP) of data.

In a blog post on Medium, Li stated that he was “thrilled by the opportunity to define and evolve the role data can play in a rapidly emerging space”, and went on to further expound on his new role with Coinbase:

“Data will be essential to empowering Coinbase’s mission, and core to company’s strategy to deliver the most trusted and easiest-to-use cryptocurrency products and services … We will be both leveraging existing technologies like machine learning and AI, as well as creating data innovations for emerging blockchain use cases to keep up with the ever-changing industry landscape.”

The former senior LinkedIn executive’s extensive career and experience in big data and AI have seen him working in sectors such as financial services, e-commerce, and social/professional networks, before his most recent foray into the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology space.

Li’s addition to the team is one in a long line of hires aimed at beefing up the Coinbase team – in March this year, the digital asset exchange added Emilie Choi (another former LinkedIn executive) to its staff as VP of corporate and business development. More recently, Coinbase hired Tim Wagner, a former general manager at Amazon Web Services, as its new VP of engineering in July.

In addition, last week Coinbase inaugurated its new institutional-focused New York office and confirmed that it plans to expand the office to a staff of 150 (to be acquired from Wall Street), from its current team of 20.