Ian Allison

Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH.

Ian Allison

Latest from Ian Allison


Finance

U.S. Crypto Regulatory Fog Keeps Standard Chartered Rooted in UAE, Asia

Standard Chartered chose Dubai as its base for launching crypto services. Reading between the lines, the message coming from banks and large institutions is that almost anywhere is preferable to the U.S.

Standard Chartered, majority owner of Zodia Custody. (Shutterstock)

Finance

BitGo Buys Crypto Wealth Management Platform HeightZero

Financial details of the deal were not revealed.

Full Shows – Consensus: Distributed

Finance

Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures Raise Crypto Political Capital With University of Arkansas Tech Sprint

As well as some big corporations, Arkansas is home to policymakers like Rep. French Hill and Sen. John Boozman, both of whom have taken an interest in digital asset technology, said Haun Ventures Chief Policy Officer Tomicah Tillemann.

Arkansas has emerged as a player in crypto (Unsplash)

Finance

Crypto Bank Xapo Snags European Broker License, Will Offer Stocks Like Apple

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) license will soon allow the firm to offer S&P 500 stocks. In addition, Xapo, which has always been bitcoin-only, plans to add Ethereum’s ETH.

Xapo CEO Seamus Rocca (Xapo)

Finance

Crypto Prime Broker Membrane Labs Raises $20M From Brevan Howard, Point72 Ventures and Jane Street

Other notable names included in the Series A round were Flow Traders, QCP Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Electric Capital, Jump Crypto, QCP Capital, GSR Markets, Belvedere Trading, and Framework Ventures.

(Pixabay)

Finance

JPMorgan Debuts Tokenized BlackRock Shares as Collateral with Barclays

BlackRock said tokenization of money market fund shares as collateral in clearing and margining transactions would dramatically reduce the operational friction in meeting margin calls.

JP Morgan office (Matthew Foulds/Unsplash)

Finance

Bitstamp Courts European Banks as Region's Incoming Crypto Rules Boost Confidence

The longest-running crypto exchange says three European banks are in talks about offering crypto services – a stark contrast to the U.S., where firms are wary amid a regulatory crackdown.

Bitstamp USA CEO Robert Zagotta (Bitstamp)

Finance

Banking Giants Abuzz About Tokenization of Real-World Assets as DeFi Craves Collateral

JPMorgan, Citi and Franklin Templeton are digitizing traditional assets. Will they end up trading on crypto networks like Ethereum?

Wall Street sign

Web3

Web3 Adventure Game Big Time Poised to Kickoff Its ‘Player-Owned Economy’

During the last year of beta testing, the crypto and NFT-focused game’s community has grown to over 350,000 people on Discord and over a quarter million on X (formerly Twitter).

Big Time is ready for action (Big Time Studios)

Finance

Tether Co-Founder Sizes Up PayPal’s Stablecoin Ambitions

Tether pioneer William Quigley, who was also an early investor in PayPal, said he doubts the payments giant will bring much innovation to the stablecoin space.

Tether co-founder William Quigley (Magnetic)