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

Crypto Bankruptcy Investor Ouroboros Eyes Smaller Claims

The platform automates the due diligence process for buying cryptocurrency bankruptcy claims in firms like FTX or Celsius, providing previously missing liquidity for creditors owed around $50,000.

(Pixabay)

Finance

Northstake Raises $3M to Boost Institutional Crypto Staking

The 2.8 million-euro fundraise comes from PreSeed Ventures, Morph Capital, The Aventures Fund, Funfair Ventures and Delta Blockchain Fund.

Photo of Northstake CEO Jesper Johansen

Finance

Mastercard Focuses Its ‘Engage’ Program on Crypto

The expanded network helps bring new crypto card programs to market and creates crypto-to-fiat conversion capabilities, Mastercard said.

Raj Dhamodharan, Head of Crypto and Blockchain, Mastercard (Shutterstock/CoinDesk)

Finance

BlackRock May Have Found Way to Get SEC Approval for Spot Bitcoin ETF

The asset management giant included a surveillance-sharing agreement in its proposal, which could eliminate the risk of market manipulation related to bitcoin.

BlackRock headquarters in New York (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Finance

Binance to Quit Netherlands After Failing to Acquire License

The crypto exchange's attempt to secure a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license from the Dutch regulator was unsuccessful.

The Dutch Central Bank cited its nation’s declining use of physical cash as one of the reasons it may do well with a CBDC trial. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Finance

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s ResearchHub Startup Raises $5M in Funding

The Series A round was led by Open Source Software Capital with participation from Boost VC, RedHat's Bob Young, Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch and Replit's Amjad Masad.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (CoinDesk archives)

Finance

BlackRock Close to Filing for Bitcoin ETF Application: Source

BlackRock will be using Coinbase (COIN) Custody for the ETF and the crypto exchange’s spot market data for pricing, the source said.

BlackRock headquarters (Shutterstock)

Tech

Polkadot Revamps Governance System, Removes ‘First Class Citizen’ Voting Groups

The new Polkadot OpenGov system allows multiple voting tracks to take place simultaneously without bottlenecks.

The Polkadot pavilion on the Promenade at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (Sandali Handagama/CoinDesk)

Finance

Crypto Exchange OKX Wins Preparatory License in Dubai, Set to Boost Staff

Once the so-called MVP license becomes operational, OKX Middle East will offer spot, derivatives and fiat services including U.S. dollar and UAE dirham deposits and withdrawals.

Tim Byun (OKX)

Finance

Crypto Prime Broker FPG Loses Up to $20M in Cyber Attack

FPG told customers via email that it had ceased trading, deposits and withdrawals after experiencing a cyber security incident on Sunday, June 11.

Digital pseudonyms can help organizations maintain records securely. (Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images)