NEW DELHI: In an attempt to build a strong team from scratch, American cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase has appointed Pankaj Gupta as its vice president - engineering and site lead for India. Before joining Coinbase, Gupta was leading Google Pay Engineering in APAC. 

To expand its operations in India, Coinbase is all set to hire hundreds of employees across various roles in the next one or two years. 

"For the next phase of my life after Google, I am thrilled to share that I will be joining Coinbase as VP of engineering and site lead for India. I’ll be responsible for leading and building the company’s technology hub in India from scratch. I will be hiring across India," wrote Gupta on his blog. 

He added that India has world-class tech expertise and some of the brightest minds in the industry. He also expressed his aim to tap and develop local talent in India. 

"The plan is to hire hundreds of employees across all levels in engineering, product management, UX design, research, and program management within the next one to two years to build out a full tech hub in India. Together, we’ll work on some of the most interesting challenges spanning the full modern tech stack — including deep tech areas like blockchains, data engineering, infrastructure, machine learning, and more," he added. 

On 25 March, Coinbase had said that the company is planning to open a physical office in Hyderabad. The decision to expand its operations in India comes at a time when the central government is mulling a ban on cryptocurrency.