The New York State Department of Financial Services recently fined Coinbase, and since then, there have been harsh (and in my opinion, false) accusations made against the company. In this episode, I share my thoughts on why Coinbase ended up in this position and what it could have done to avoid it! 

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Today’s episode:

• [00:50] Some of the most popular explanations given for the fine that Coinbase received.  
• [01:21] The settlement order that Coinbase was issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
• [03:08] My thoughts on the root cause of the issues that led Coinbase to be fined. 
• [04:34] The four areas where Coinbase reportedly had deficiencies. 
• [08:42] The outcome of the Coinbase audit conducted in 2020 and why they agreed to pay the fine. 
• [10:59] Examples from the settlement order that highlight why the harsh accusations made against Coinbase are inaccurate. 
• [13:46] The finding in the settlement order that was most surprising to me. 
• [19:39] Why Coinbase ended up with a backlog of “suspicious alerts” and how they could have avoided this.  
• [27:17] Mistakes that Coinbase made with regard to due diligence for high-risk accounts. 
• [31:51] An overview of my thoughts on what went wrong at Coinbase. 

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