Blockchain.com adds former CEO of KPMG to board as crypto firm eyes IPO

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance.

Amid a banner year for Bitcoin, two crypto firms have held initial public offerings, and more are hoping to do the same. One of those appears to be Blockchain.com, which earlier this year announced the hiring of a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, and on Wednesday announced that it had added Timothy Flynn, who has previously led KPMG and served as a director of JP Morgan, to its board.

The announcement also included the appointment the Chief Legal Officer of e-commerce site Klaviyo, Landon Edmond to the company’s board. The moves come amid an unprecedented boom for the crypto industry, which has included a clamor of investor interest in some of the sector’s oldest names—including Blockchain.com.

Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com was an early leader in distributing crypto wallets, and became known in part for its Blockchain Explorer tool, which provides an easy interface for people to search transactions on Bitcoin and other chains. It has also made forays into the exchange business, and payment services.

According to President Lane Kasselman, Blockchain.com has three primary lines of business: wallets for retail users, crypto services for hedge funds and other institutions, and asset management. The latter business includes venture capital investments, high frequency trading, and working with digital asset treasury firms.

Kasselman described the company’s board, which numbers nine with Wednesday’s appointments, as “spanning from Wall Street to Web 3.”

In a statement, Flynn describe the firm as “a trusted bridge between traditional finance and the digital economy.”

Blockchain.com, which was valued at $7 billion in 2023, declined to comment on whether it is actively pursuing an initial public offering. The longtime crypto exchange Kraken is another familiar industry name that has been the subject of media reports about a potential IPO.

In recent months, stablecoin giant Circle and crypto conglomerate Bullish made their public debuts, four years after Coinbase held the industry’s first IPO.