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Coinbase Hires Former Stripe Exec as Chief Compliance Officer

Melissa Strait will take charge of Coinbase's compliance initiatives ahead of its planned public listing.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:12 p.m. Published Feb 17, 2021, 3:00 p.m.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has hired a former executive of payments company Stripe to head its compliance efforts.

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Melissa Strait joins the San-Francisco-based exchange as chief compliance officer where she will be charged with ensuring company accountability, transparency and customer financial safety, Coinbase announced Wednesday.

Strait brings a wealth of experience at Stripe, having served more than seven years as U.S. compliance officer and then as global head of financial crimes, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Stripe, Strait oversaw daily compliance operations at global payments company Square where she led a 17-person strong sub-team.

A Coinbase spokesperson told CoinDesk the addition of Strait to the team means it now has a 50% representation of women in leadership roles.

The latest hire comes as Coinbase is seeking to go public via a listing on Nasdaq. The firm is being valued at $77 billion based on trading of the company’s privately held shares on a secondary market, CoinDesk reported Wednesday.

Coinbase Hires Compliance

Sebastian Sinclair

Sebastian Sinclair is the market and news reporter for CoinDesk operating in the South East Asia timezone. He has experience trading in the cryptocurrency markets, providing technical analysis and covering news developments affecting the movements on bitcoin and the industry as a whole. He currently holds no cryptocurrencies.