With a friendly attitude towards financial innovation, the Republic of Ireland has become a desired destination for fintech businesses that need unimpeded access to the common European market. Cryptocurrency companies have been opening offices in the EU member state with some well-known players now looking to hire local talent.

Major Crypto Companies Set Up European Branches in Ireland, Fill New Positions

California-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has chosen Ireland as its European base, the Irish daily Independent reported. The company, a major provider of digital asset trading services in the United States is now forming a team in Dublin to support its European operations, the newspaper revealed on Sunday.

According to the publication, the crypto platform has around 2,000 employees globally. Three ads for open positions with Kraken have been published on Glassdoor in the past month or so – for software project manager, compliance risk officer, and senior site reliability engineer. The exchange was also looking for an Operational Resiliency Specialist on Linkedin. All of them are based in the Irish capital.

Another U.S. digital currency exchange that’s building up a base in Dublin is Gemini, the Independent wrote earlier in July. The New York-headquartered crypto company has applied for an electronic money license from the Central Bank of Ireland which it hopes to use to access other EU markets. The crypto platform obtained regulatory approval in the U.K. last year.

To facilitate its European expansion plan, Gemini has already hired Gillian Lynch to manage its operations on the Old Continent from Ireland. The executive has previously served as a chief operating officer of Leveris, a fintech firm, and as head of retail planning at Bank of Ireland. Lynch occupied the latter position for several years.

The crypto exchange has also filled a number of other vacancies in the island nation. The list includes a head of finance and a head of risk and compliance. Gemini is now recruiting accounting managers and traders as well. People who will be appointed to these positions will be expected to handle orders on behalf of its customers.

Not only crypto-focused companies but also financial institutions with aspirations to get involved in the market have been choosing Ireland as a destination for their digital asset business. Following a decision to enter the crypto space in February, U.S. giant Bank of New York Mellon established a ‘Digital Innovation Hub’ in Dublin in May. The unit will operate as a crypto asset custodian holding and transferring digital currencies for its clients.

In June, the Irish press reported that Goldman Sachs-backed fintech firm Blockdaemon plans to expand its presence in Galway as it looks for acquisitions. The company which develops blockchain technology for financial service providers opened an office in the western Irish city some three years ago and has since started hiring talent for remote positions across Ireland. It currently has ten employees, seven of which are based in Galway with the rest residing in other parts of the country. Furthermore, the latest findings from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index also note that 2.27% of Bitcoin’s hashrate is situated in Ireland.

Do you expect Ireland to attract more companies from the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below.

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