MoonPay bolsters team with hires from Cisco, Cash App and Coinbase

Crypto payments and non-fungible token (NFT) service provider MoonPay said on Thursday it has brought in a tranche of top executives, a move that goes against the grain of current crypto market hiring trends. 

Asiff Hirji will be joining as advisor to the CEO following a stint as president of blockchain fintech company Figure. Hirji was Coinbase president and COO between 2017 and June 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Other big names include Akash Garg, a former VP of engineering at Block and CTO at Afterpay, as CTO; Jim Esposito, former head of operations at Block's Cash App, as COO; Garrett McManus, previously head of artist development at Cash App, as head of marketing; and Abhay Mavalankar, former head of venture investments and M&A at Cisco Investments, as head of corporate development. 

Tom Capone, previously head of web3 at the Creative Artist Agency, will also join as head of MoonPay Studios – a new part of the company which will help ideate and incubate corporate ideas for NFT drops. 

MoonPay has moved to diversify its business model from its core product in recent months, which was originally a fiat to crypto onramping API.

In June, the company officially launched a utility NFT minting service called HyperMint. The platform allows brands and creators to mint up to 100 million NFTs at once. The move was part of an effort to manoeuvre into becoming an "Amazon Web Services for NFTs," The Block first reported in April. 

MoonPay, which launched in 2019 to increase crypto adoption, closed a Series A funding round in November 2021 at $555 million, bringing the company's valuation to $3.4 billion. 

The company's hiring spree comes at a tricky time for crypto. Market turmoil has prompted a series of layoffs in recent months by companies including Coinbase, BlockFi, Crypto.com, 2TM, Abra and Bitpanda.