Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency startup Circle recently revealed it will hire 100 employees to expand the cryptocurrency exchange it recently acquired, Poloniex. The move will see Poloniex’s customer support, technology, and operations improve.
Circle, which started as a mobile payments company, acquired Poloniex exchange late last month for $400 million, in one of the largest acquisitions the cryptocurrency industry has ever seen. Data from CryptoCompare shows Poloniex is currently one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, measured by trading volume. It processed $160 million worth of trades in the last 24-hour period.
According to Bloomberg, 25 to 35 of Circle’s new employees will help the company grow its Asia operations, adding to a staff od about 10 in Hong Kong and mainland China. Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire further revealed the Dublin-registered company will set up teams in South Korea and Japan.
Other new employees will support Circle’s institutional trading desk, Cricle Trade. The platform currently manages roughly $4 billion in monthly trading volume. With the new additions, Circle Trade is set to start offering trading in Asian fiat currencies.
During its global expansion, Allaire noted, the company will cooperate with authorities. Referring to Poloniex, he said:
“The long-term view is that every form of value on the planet will become a crypto token. We want to offer more markets, more assets, we want to localize it, and launch it in more international markets and, critically, we need to work with the most important regulators.”
Circle’s other products include Circle Invest, a platform that allows users to invest in cryptocurrencies, and Circle Pay, a payment app. The company is backed by notable investors like Goldman Sachs, Baidu, and investment bank China International Capital.
The company’s plan to expand to Asia is notable, as a large percentage of bitcoin’s trading volume is based in Japan and South Korea. Per CryptoCompare, the Japanese Yen saw 46.5 percent of the cryptocurrency’s trading volume in the last 24-hour period, while the Korean Won saw 4.4 percent.
Meanwhile Coinbase, a dominant cryptocurrency exchange in the West, recently revealed it received an e-money license in the UK. It became the first cryptocurrency exchange to have a bank account in the country, and has plans to increase its London-based team.
