Coinbase Canada CEO Lucas Matheson will leave the crypto exchange this week to join San Francisco-based real estate tech firm Opendoor as president, becoming the latest in a string of Shopify alumni to jump ship to the Silicon Valley company.
âI had the opportunity to work with Kaz [Nejatian] at Shopify and couldnât imagine a better leader to bring Opendoor back to founder mode, and rebuild the company.â
Lucas Matheson, Coinbase
In his new role, Matheson will oversee Opendoorâs corporate development, financial planning and analysis, and explore strategic initiatives including how blockchain technology and tokenization might create new pathways to homeownership, the company said in a statement.
“Real estate is one of the last major asset classes that hasn’t been touched by the financial innovation happening everywhere else,” Matheson said in his own statement. “Opendoor has already proven you can reimagine how people buy and sell homes. I’m here to help execute on what’s next.”
Matheson spent three years leading Coinbase Canada, advocating for the companyâs crypto interests and making it the first international crypto exchange to secure a restricted dealer licence in the country.
In an X post, Matheson called his time with Coinbase âan opportunity of a lifetime,â thanking his team as well as regulators like the Canadian Securities Administrators, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada, and âelected officials who stepped up to embrace the future and recognize blockchain’s transformative potential.â
BetaKit has reached out to Coinbase for comment on Mathesonâs departure.
Before Coinbase, Matheson spent five years as Shopifyâs senior director of operations. In this role, he led Shopifyâs mergers and acquisitions, strategic expansion, corporate financial planning and analysis.
Matheson also worked with former Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian, who left Canadaâs largest tech company to become Opendoorâs CEO this past September following a period of GameStop-style trading led by retail investors. Nejatian has since doubled down on the populist angle, parting ways with Opendoorâs external relations agencies to favour using X to speak directly to its investors, and indicated that Opendoor will look to establish an office in Toronto.
RELATED: Kaz Nejatian brings his former Shopify âsecond-in-commandâ to Opendoor
âI had the opportunity to work with Kaz at Shopify and couldnât imagine a better leader to bring Opendoor back to founder mode, and rebuild the company and product,â Matheson said in the X post.
âHe was frequently the smartest person in the room when I worked with him at Shopify and his work leading at Coinbase is so obviously exceptional,â Nejatian said of Matheson in his own X post.
Nejatian has accumulated multiple Shopify alumni, past and present, to his new operation in recent months. Roach Capital lead Fahd Ananta, a former product manager at Shopify, joined Opendoor almost immediately after Nejatian. A few weeks later, Nejatian tapped his former âsecond-in-command,â Shopify vice-president of operations Giang LeGrice, to lead operations at his company.
In a statement, Nejatian said his job is to âfind the best person for every seat.”
“This is the team for the next version of Opendoor, one built for speed, clarity, and impact,â Nejatian said. âEvery day we don’t make real progress is a day we don’t make homeownership better. We’re not going to waste days.”
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Feature image courtesy Coinbase.