Coinbase is a centralized old fashioned listed company that (even though they dislike it) has to follow the laws applicable to it. They do KYC and maybe even a

Coinbase is a centralized old fashioned listed company that (even though they dislike it) has to follow the laws applicable to it. They do KYC and maybe even a bit of token AML and CTF. Then you can exchange fiat into crypto, send it to an unhosted (=self-hosted) wallet, and then do with the crypto as you wish without following any rules whatsoever, by design. Furthermore, there are many less regulated parts of the cryptocurrency ecosystem that do not even abide by that modicum of regulation. Look, any bank could trivially replicate 100% of the functionality of a cryptocurrency, or a stable coin, with a good old-fashioned database (even a distributed database, so you have all the frequently cited benefits of decentralization - nearly all). And then they'd be shut down, because they'd be in violation of all sorts of laws and enabling all sorts of crimes. (This is not a hypothetical: see what happened to Liberty Reserve, e-gold, and others that had this glorious idea prior to crypto. They were all swiftly shut down.) So, while the entire ecosystem might not initially have set out to break sanctions and launder money and subvert other rules, that is the use case which the technology enables compared to pre-Nakamoto technology.