“We do have some hiring to do in Dubai as well,” Belshe added.

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BitGo received backing from banking giant Goldman Sachs in its series B funding round in October 2018. Belshe said it was “hard” to get funding from Goldman Sachs.

“To receive funding from Goldman was tough. When they make an investment, they are very demanding,” Belshe said.

“Goldman’s backing had a massive impact. People know that Goldman has a high bar, so that helps,” he added.

BitGo said in August that it had closed a new $100m funding round which valued the company at $1.75bn, defying an industry-wide downtrend in crypto fundraising.

BitGo’s Dubai expansion plans come at a time when some of the leading names in the crypto industry are heading to the wealthy gulf emirate amid a regulatory crackdown in the US.

In August, Nomura’s digital asset arm Laser Digital received an operating licence from Dubai’s crypto regulator. In the same month, crypto custodian Komainu also secured approval in Dubai to offer custody, institutional staking and collateral management services in the region.

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In July, crypto exchange Binance received an operational licence in Dubai. The firm currently has over 500 people in its Dubai office. Rival crypto exchange Bitget also opened its office in Dubai in July with a plan to hire over 60 people in the next two years.

Belshe said that BitGo is planning to move “a few staff members” from Europe to Dubai. The crypto custodian has licences in Germany and Switzerland.

BitGo is also eyeing expansion across other countries in Asia, including India, Singapore and South Korea, Belshe said.

“We opened the India office earlier this year in Bengaluru. Around 50 of our 275 employees are working from India and we are hiring actively there,” Belshe said.

To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Bilal Jafar