Crypto Startup Circle Hires a Square Vet as CFO

Circle, the digital payments and cryptocurrency trading startup, is continuing its expansion with the hiring of Naeem Ishaq as chief financial officer.

Ishaq was most recently CFO of online retailer Boxed. Earlier, he was the head of finance and risk at Square, another payments startup with a foot in the crypto space.

Announcing the move Monday, Circle stated that Ishaq, who will also take on the roles of treasurer and executive vice president of risk, will help the company tackle increasing "levels of financial, operational and risk complexity" during its expansion.

The company recently acquired the crypto exchange Poloniex and introduced the Circle Invest app for digital currencies.

Circle's previous CFO, Paul Camp, left in June of last year to join the global bank HSBC, according to his LinkedIn page.

The startup's expansion plans include hiring roughly 250 people over the course of 2018, which would expand the team to 400 people by the end of the year. Its employees are located in 10 cities across seven countries.

In the black

Circle said it facilitated more than $75 billion in transactions last year, making it "one of the largest crypto finance companies in the world.”

The company said it was profitable last year, and expects to continue increasing revenue this year.

Earlier this month Circle rolled out the crypto investment app to 46 states, with plans to extend this rollout to the New York "very soon." While the app is currently in its "early access availability" phase, anyone can download it.

“At this pivotal stage, we are growing from a startup to leading global company, just as crypto goes from early adopter novelty into being foundational to the future of society and the economy,” co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville wrote in a company blog post Monday.

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