Bitso named Vaughan Smith its first chief operating officer, CoinDesk reported on August 30, 20212. Smith's job was to grow the exchange's business in Brazil. Bitso's own release, dated August 31, called the hire a milestone after fast growth across Latin America1. Smith had spent more than a decade as vice president of corporate development at eBay, Move, and most recently Facebook.
Two leadership moves at Bitso on the record since 2021
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Aug. 30, 2021 | Smith became COO. Vaughan Smith was named Chief Operating Officer of Bitso |
| Aug. 15, 2025 | Urrutia became General Counsel. Luis Urrutia was named General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs of Bitso |
27 executive hires on the record in 2021
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2021: 27
- 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 8 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
The move
Daniel Vogel, Bitso's chief executive and co-founder, tied the hire to Smith's track record. “It is a resounding pleasure to have Vaughan join our growing Bitso team. Having spent over a decade in the corporate development sectors, Vaughan brings invaluable expertise that will help drive growth and strengthen our vision of the future of finance,” Vogel said1. Smith gave his own reason for the move. “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 said2. Bitso named Daniel Mangabeira its new global head of public policy in the same announcement. He came from Uber, where he led public policy for Latin America.
Before and after at Bitso
Bitso had raised $250 million in a Series C round in May 2021, at a $2.2 billion valuation2. CoinDesk called it the first Latin American crypto company to clear $1 billion. The company said its staff had more than doubled since the start of 2021, from 205 people to more than 4401. Bitso said it would scale further still. The exchange paired Smith's operating role with Mangabeira's policy role, to push its Brazil expansion and to back its Gibraltar trading license. CoinDesk reported that the Brazil push put Bitso up against Mercado Bitcoin, a local exchange that had raised $200 million from SoftBank in July 2021.
What came next
Bitso kept building its Brazil team after Smith arrived. CoinDesk reported on April 18, 2022, nearly eight months after Smith's hire, that Bitso had named Thales Araújo de Freitas, a former Citibank and HSBC executive, country manager of its Brazil operation3. The same report recalled that Bitso had hired Smith in August 2021 to boost the company's expansion in Brazil.
Sources
- Bitso, "Bitso Taps Silicon Valley Talent and Appoints its First COO and Global Head of Public Policy, Vaughan Smith," Crypto Reporter, August 31, 2021, https://www.crypto-reporter.com/press-releases/bitso-vaughan-smith-18135/
- Andrés Engler, "Crypto Exchange Bitso Hires Facebook Veteran as First COO," CoinDesk, August 30, 2021, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/08/30/crypto-exchange-bitso-hires-facebook-veteran-as-first-coo
- Andrés Engler, "Latin American Crypto Exchange Bitso Hires New Brazil Chief," CoinDesk, April 18, 2022, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipwFBVV95cUxOb1I4elJUMUxuM0lpZnlmY2x2a3MwSEdSSHAydzMtSVp3ZnZHRi13eXZ3dURrWW9XdkVRWWNMdGxLUGhMNkRMZzMzYkJCY0ZuQ3Q0aFJYS2RURDlNWjVpcTVuVmY5c2M3OWdreTZWUXItalFYRFFvUXNkVXp3VmFEQnZJOFdhRklKamx6aXdCbHFTcVVJNS01a1R0djEzXzctbTltUjByTQ?oc=5