Dr. Jonathan Karlsen serves as Research Fellow in Finance at the University of Western Australia. He earned his PhD in Finance from the University of Technology Sydney in 2021, a Master’s in Applied Economics and Finance, and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School. His professional career includes prior research positions at the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Digital Currency Cooperative Research Center. At UWA, Karlsen has lectured in courses including FINA5524 Trading and Markets and FINA5534 Digital Finance.

Karlsen specializes in digital finance research, investigating economic benefits from innovations and their facilitation of illicit activities such as darknet markets, ransomware attacks, and money laundering. His interests also extend to financial market integrity, market manipulation, and insider trading. Key publications include “Sex, drugs, and bitcoin: How much illegal activity is financed through cryptocurrencies?” (Review of Financial Studies, 2019, with S. Foley and T. J. Putniņš), “Digging deeper - Is bitcoin digital gold? A mining perspective” (Journal of Commodity Markets, 2024, with D. G. Baur, L. A. Smales, and A. Trench), and “Do crypto investors care about energy use and climate change? Evidence from Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake” (Journal of Environmental Management, 2024, with D. G. Baur). He contributes to projects like “Measuring global market integrity,” “Economic impact potential of real-world asset tokenization,” and “Quantifying ransomware attacks.” Karlsen has secured grants from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand for research on cryptocurrency exchange monopolies and from UWA for decoding corporate engagements on Sustainable Development Goals.

Professional Email: jonathan.karlsen@uwa.edu.au