Melissa Wisner

Vice President of Crypto Risk

Ciphertrace

Melissa Wisner is the Vice President of Crypto Risk at Ciphertrace, a Mastercard Company. She is responsible for leading global engagements with virtual asset providers as well as traditional and nonbank financial institutions to support a safer virtual asset ecosystem for businesses, consumers and investors.

Prior to Ciphertrace, Melissa was the Director of Internal Controls, Governance and Strategy at Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform, where she oversaw, strengthened and scaled global control programs. She also held compliance and risk-related positions at Blockfi Inc. Before transitioning to the crypto industry in 2020, Melissa held several roles at HSBC and served most recently as the Head of Governance, External Engagement and Strategy for HSBC’s global financial crime function in London.

From 2010 to 2015, Melissa held numerous positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury–including as the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, where she was responsible for coordinating the Department’s policy, regulatory and enforcement activities. Melissa was also the Deputy and Acting Treasury Attaché in Beijing, China, where worked to advice the U.S.-China economic relationship and coordinate efforts to combat illicit finance. She initially joined Treasury as a Policy Advisor responsible for Treasury’s counterproliferation portfolio.

Melissa is a graduate of Yale College and Johns Hopkins University SAIS.