Coinbase poaches former LinkedIn executives to join Bitcoin market M&A boom

Cryptocurrency startup Coinbase has hired a former LinkedIn executive to lead its acquisition efforts.

According to a blog post published on Monday, Emilie Choi will serve as the company’s vice president of business development. Previously serving as LinkedIn’s vice president of corporate development, Choi’s new role will focus on bringing Coinbase into new market segments while also placing a greater emphasis on “world-class M&A and partnership opportunities.”

Prior to LinkedIn, Choi worked at Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., where she focused on corporate development and digital business strategy innovation. She also worked at Yahoo! in the corporate development team.

In the statement, the startup indicated its focus on the potential acquisition, highlighting Choi’s expertise and strengths in this area.

“In addition to her deep experience in high-growth companies, Emilie Choi’s reputation as an advocate for founders at every step of the M&A process is a perfect fit for Coinbase at this stage,” President and COO Asiff Hirji said in a blog post, adding:

As part of our vision to create an open financial system, we hope to connect with entrepreneurs and teams around the world who are passionate about innovating in the cryptocurrency space.

Choi told Fortune that she sees the current M&A landscape in the cryptocurrency industry as similar to the opportunities Google had in the early 2000s. She said:

There were just a lot of really interesting and unique startups that helped Google take it to the next level. So it feels like we've seen that a lot. There are so many interesting startups and entrepreneurs in this space... and Coinbase is trying to take advantage of that.

Choi’s addition could mean Coinbase continues to work on growing its management team. Notably, the company hired former Twitter executive Tina Bhatnagar in late January to bolster its client lineup.