Strengthening our commitment to trust through compliance: Melissa Strait joins Coinbase as Chief…

Strengthening our commitment to trust through compliance: Melissa Strait joins Coinbase as Chief Compliance Officer

By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer

Since our founding more than eight years ago, Coinbase has committed itself to being the most trusted and compliant venue for anyone to interact with the cryptoeconomy. We hold ourselves to the same exacting compliance standards as the world’s largest financial institutions and fintech companies. We believe that this commitment not only ensures the safest experience for our customers, but also helps drive the industry forward by encouraging the same levels of accountability, transparency and professionalism that customers expect from companies to which they entrust their money.

It’s with this commitment in mind that today we welcome our new Chief Compliance Officer, Melissa Strait. In her new role, Melissa will be responsible for our global compliance programs, including our know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) initiatives, as well as managing our work with law enforcement agencies around the world.

Melissa joins us from leading fintech company Stripe, where she most recently served as its Global Head of Financial Crimes. She previously held the role of the company’s U.S. Compliance Officer. In both roles she built and led global teams responsible for the implementation and day-to-day sustainment of compliance programs that supported millions of the world’s top companies in more than 120 countries. Prior to joining Stripe, she oversaw daily compliance operations at Square, a global payments company.

“As Coinbase continues to be the bridge between the cryptoeconomy and the traditional financial system, implementing industry-leading compliance programs will be critical to earning and maintaining the trust of our retail and institutional customers. Melissa’s experience at the very cutting edge of fintech innovation makes her uniquely qualified to navigate the complex web of regulations to which we not only comply with, but are also helping to shape,” Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer, Coinbase

Melissa is no stranger to Coinbase. In her roles at Stripe and Square, she oversaw the compliance aspects of each company’s integration with our various products, introducing a range of new customers to the potential of cryptocurrency.

In her past roles, Melissa helped to build teams during the critical moments of growth and regulation within the traditional fintech industry. As we continue to move forward with the mainstream adoption of crypto, her experience will be vital in ensuring our innovative technology is aligned with global compliance standards. Her experience with traditional fintech and building teams from the ground up will be an outstanding addition to our rapidly growing legal and compliance functions, complimenting the recent additions of Paul Grewal as our Chief Legal Officer, and Milana Mccullagh and Katherine Minarik.

Welcome to Coinbase, Melissa. We look forward to doing great things together.

Strengthening our commitment to trust through compliance: Melissa Strait joins Coinbase as Chief… was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.