Kayla Izenman

Kayla Izenman is currently a part of the compliance team at Coinbase, where she conducts asset investigations. She was previously a Research Fellow at RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies. Kayla’s primary research projects at RUSI focused on understanding and addressing the financial crime risks posed by new technology, chiefly those related to cryptocurrency.

Kayla led RUSI’s work on cryptocurrency and counter-proliferation finance, analysing North Korea’s use of crypto to evade sanctions and launder funds, and assisted the private and public sector in effectively working together to understand and mitigate the threat. She also conducted research on the use of cryptocurrency by other proliferators, terrorist groups, traffickers, and money-launderers, and assessed appropriate policy and regulatory responses for these risks. Kayla’s work has been cited in a variety of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Financial Times, and Wired. She has also spoken at a number of conferences and events and led training for both the private and public sector.

Prior to joining RUSI, Kayla worked at both the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of State. She holds a Bachelor’s in International Relations from Boston University, where she wrote her honour’s thesis on terrorist financing via cryptocurrency.