Crypto Exchange Bitso Hires Facebook Veteran as First COO

Bitso has hired Vaughan Smith as its first chief operating officer to boost the company’s expansion in Brazil.

The Latin American cryptocurrency exchange also said Monday Daniel Mangabeira will be its new global head of public policy, part of a major hiring initiative fueled by Bitso’s $250 million funding round in May.

• Smith, former VP of corporate development at Facebook, will focus on expanding Bitso’s Brazilian business, the company said in a statement, adding that he will also “play a large role in mapping out Bitso’s evolution within the continuously growing crypto space.”
• After establishing itself in Argentina and Mexico, the company now plans to expand in Brazil, where it will compete against local exchange Mercado Bitcoin, which in July raised $200 million from SoftBank.
• Daniel Vogel, Bitso’s CEO and co-founder, said that “Vaughan brings invaluable expertise that will help drive growth and strengthen our vision of the future of finance.”
• “There is so much crypto can offer in Latin America, from making financial freedom accessible to millions of unbanked individuals to providing options not offered by the traditional financial system,” Smith said in a statement.
• Mangabeira, who was Uber’s head of public policy in Latin America, will help the company build a public policy team and address regulatory issues.
• In May, Bitso raised its Series C funding round at a $2.2 billion valuation. It was the region’s first cryptocurrency company to exceed a $1 billion valuation.
• The company said that since 2021 it has expanded its team by more than 200% and plans to “continue scaling up aggressively.”