Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase sets up Brexit contingency plan

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Coinbase, the US cryptocurrency exchange, is opening an office in Dublin as part of its contingency planning before the UK leaves the EU next year.

The San Francisco-based start-up, which is among the top 20 biggest digital currency exchanges by volume traded and already has a small number of employees in London, said on Tuesday that it initially planned to hire about a dozen people to the new Dublin branch.

Coinbase said the expansion to the Irish capital was part of a bid to scale up in the EU, which was the group’s fastest-growing market last year and in the current year to date.

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But the exchange, which has about 500 staff around the world, also said it wanted to ensure it could continue to “passport” its services across the bloc after Brexit.

“Ireland does offer us a home in a post-Brexit scenario,” Zeeshan Feroz, the chief executive of Coinbase’s UK division, told the Financial Times. “It could serve as our gateway in the future . . . we’re planning for all eventualities.”

Mr Feroz said Coinbase had looked at “other options” but had settled on Dublin due to its proximity to the UK and “access to talent”. Ireland’s low-tax regime and vibrant technology community have already attracted the likes of Google and Facebook.

While cryptocurrencies are not regulated assets in most of the EU, some crypto exchanges have been granted more traditional licences from regulators for their fiat operations.