(Bloomberg) — Crypto exchange Blockchain.com, one of the early Bitcoin infrastructure providers, plans to expand its workforce by 25% in the first quarter as it seeks to reach into new markets such as Nigeria and Turkey. 

The exchange has also hired Curtis Ting, who used to be head of global operations at Kraken, to help set up the company’s new hub in Paris and to create local entities across Europe, needed to adhere to new regulations. Blockchain.com’s European operations are currently managed through a single entity based in London. Blockchain.com will also seek more local licenses, Chief Executive Officer Peter Smith said in an interview. 

The company, which employs about 300 people, plans to enter Nigeria and Turkey next year, Smith said. The expansion comes as industry participants continue to seek to recover from a series of scandals that helped to trigger a collapse of token prices in 2022 that has been referred to as a crypto winter.

“We are definitely a little bit in the early spring, and it’s definitely time when you start to invest in the future,” Smith said.

The company’s revenue has lately been increasing faster month over month than ever before, Smith said. He didn’t provide specific figures. 

“We’ve seen a lot of shakeout in the market, whether it’s companies retreating from certain local markets or being distracted from regulatory [pressure], or companies going under,” Smith said. “For us over the last 1.5 years, it’s been an incredible opportunity to take market share. There’s probably 60-70% less competition right now than there was at the end of 2021 — brokerages, exchanges, any line you look at.”

Blockchain.com recently raised $110 million led by UK-based Kingsway Capital. The Series E strategic financing left the company valued at less than half of its $14 billion valuation in the spring of 2022, Bloomberg reported earlier.

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