(Bloomberg) — Blockchain.com is leasing a 22,000-square-foot (2,044-square-meter) office in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, close to Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, in the latest sign of crypto industry expansion in the Florida city.
The company will eventually employ about 300 people in the building formerly known as Cube Wynwd, which will become the Blockchain.com Building. Blockchain.com will occupy the seventh and eighth floors.
Blockchain.com moved its Americas headquarters to Miami from New York last year, and had been in a temporary space in nearby Brickell. The move has coincided with a large increase in head count at the company, which was valued at $5.2 billion in a 2021 fundraising.
The pandemic era work-from-anywhere movement has made South Florida a popular destination for crypto jobs, as well as some high-profile tech and finance firms. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has actively courted such jobs, and Blockchain.com Chief Executive Officer Peter Smith attributed the move in part to the mayor’s recruitment.
Other companies bringing jobs to South Florida include MoonPay, a PayPal for digital currencies, and crypto exchange FTX, which acquired the naming rights for the Miami Heat’s basketball arena.
“Miami is a place where crypto is just really flourishing, and there’s a huge amount of interest really across the board,” Smith said by phone.
Wynwood, which was originally popular for its street murals, has become a major hub of bars, restaurants and now tech offices. Once mostly warehouses, it became known for its art studios and galleries until the latest phase of development started pricing out many of them. Venture capital companies Founders Fund and Atomic recently set up shop at the Wynwood Annex across the street from the Blockchain.com building.
The 100,000-square-foot Blockchain.com Building was purchased last year by Tricera Capital and Lndmrk Development. Tricera co-founder Ben Mandell said they bought the property in April 2021 to tap into the growing demand. Other tenants include financial technology firm Kushki and Shaolin Capital Management.
Some new arrivals to Miami are seeking completed offices that are move-in ready for a fast transition, Mandell said.
“There was more demand coming into Miami, sustainable office demand, because these executives were buying homes here and moving here for many reasons,” he said.
(Updates with other tenants in eighth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the spelling of Founders Fund.)
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