Digital Money's Anti-Financial Crime Future, with Coinbase's Joseph Salama

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran talks with Joseph Salama, chief compliance officer at Coinbase, about mitigating financial crime risk associated with digital assets. Joe discusses current regulatory frameworks for crypto currencies, touching on the Stablecoin Act, Europe's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) and some current proposals for oversight, arguing that the industry needs clear guardrails, not regulation by enforcement action. Proper regulation, he says, will produce enough friction to help identify and interdict illicit transactions, give crypto users confidence in digital markets, and minimize roadblocks to legitimate crypto asset transactions. With cryptocurrency an increasingly important component in money laundering schemes, Joe envisions holistic oversight of transactions that breaks down walls between traditional financial institutions and digital asset service providers, while expressing optimism a convergence of both is already underway and will only grow.