Ian Allison

Senior Reporter

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.

Latest from Ian Allison

Policy

Where FATF Crypto Compliance Gets Interesting: Africa

Crypto businesses seeing strong growth across the 54-country continent are working hard to meet the FATF's anti-money laundering standards.

Aug 3, 2020

Finance

Audius Rallies EDM Artists, Crypto VCs to Back Vision for Music Payments on Ethereum

Audius, a streaming service built on Ethereum, has raised $3.1 million from Multicoin Capital, Blockchange Ventures, Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

Jul 30, 2020

Finance

Circle Gets $25M From DCG to Drive USDC Mainstream

USDC backer Circle is teaming with Genesis Trading in a $25 million deal aimed at pushing the stablecoin to the fintech masses.

Jul 30, 2020

Finance

Carbon Credits Have a Double-Spend Problem. This Microsoft-Backed Project Is Trying to Fix It

The Microsoft-backed IWA sustainability group is building a tokenization standard that aims to bring transparency to carbon accounting.

Jul 29, 2020

Finance

How the EEA Made Ethereum Palatable to Big Business

Formed in 2017, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance helped large corporates and tech providers experiment with blockchain.

Jul 29, 2020

ConsenSys staffer and EEA board member Jeremy Millar speaks in 2018. (Ian Allison/CoinDesk archives)

Markets

Memories of London’s Devcon 1, Ethereum’s ‘Woodstock’ Moment

Ethereum’s Devcon 1, held in London in November 2015, featured adventuresome bankers and Big 4 consultants mingling with dreadlocked coders.

Jul 28, 2020

Christian Lundkvist and Vitalik Buterin (right) speak at Devcon 1. (Ethereum Foundation/YouTube)

Finance

Bitstamp Backs BCB’s SWIFT Alternative for Instant Cash-Crypto Settlements

BCB Group is launching an instant settlement network for cash and crypto.

Jul 27, 2020

Policy

Banks Won't Rush to Hold Crypto – But OCC's Regulatory Approval Makes It Harder to Ignore

Regulatory approval doesn't mean banks are about to begin providing crypto custody, but it is accelerating a conversation about financial institutions safeguarding bitcoin.

Jul 24, 2020

Finance

How One Firm Is Addressing the Interoperability Problem Posed by FATF's 'Travel Rule'

Crypto companies building solutions to the FATF "Travel Rule" may be creating a new interoperability problem. Netki is offering a fix.

Jul 23, 2020

Finance

PayPal Picks Paxos to Supply Crypto for New Service, Sources Say

PayPal has chosen Paxos to handle the new service’s supply of digital assets, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Jul 20, 2020