Coinbase Adds Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke to Board of Directors
If approved by the board later this week, Lütke will be added to Coinbase’s existing five board members which includes Andreessen Horowitz’s Katie Haun and Marc Andreessen, Union Square Ventures co-founder Fred Wilson, DoorDash executive Gokul Rajaram, and former Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer.
In a recent blog post, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that Lütke is one of the first crypto adopters 'through Shopify’s integration with Coinbase Commerce' that offered crypto payment options to millions of merchants. He even suggested that his e-commerce company could play a key strategic role in crypto's future.
"With his guidance, we hope to unlock crypto’s potential to increase economic freedom in the same way Shopify democratized online commerce," wrote Armstrong.
Commenting on the development, Tobi Lutke in a statement:
"The concepts of decentralized finance and entrepreneurship exemplify the promise of Web3 where opportunity exists for the many, not the few. Coinbase and Shopify share this like-minded vision, and I am excited to join the Board to support the future that Brian and the Coinbase team are building.”
Crypto companies have been adding experienced executives from reputed companies to their boards of directors. Just last week, Blockchain.com added the former American Airlines Group Inc Chairman Tom Horton as the lead independent director to its board.
Shopify's Long Connection With Crypto
Shopify lets customers pay in cryptocurrencies and more recently announced support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) including launching beta access in December which is currently available for merchants based in the United States of America.
In fact, the company began offering support for Bitcoin payments way back in 2013 via BitPay a year before it adopted Coinbase Commerce in 2014.