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

ConsenSys Spins Up Staking Service in Anticipation of Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum development house ConsenSys is being backed by heavy hitters like Binance and Huobi to test its new “staking-as-a-service” offering.

ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin speaks at Devcon 5 in Osaka, Japan, October 2019. (ConsenSys)

Finance

Business Is Booming for DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Ahead of Ethereum 2.0

Nexus Mutual, an alternative insurance provider for a variety of Ethereum-based DeFi protocols, has seen its risk pool double over the past 90 days to more than $4 million.

(Shutterstock)

Finance

Just-Launched Ziglu Wants to Make It Stupid Easy to Buy Crypto

U.K.-based cryptocurrency platform Ziglu has launched, following a $6.6 million seed round.

Ziglu CEO Mark Hipperson

Finance

Custody Battle Pits Institutional Boomers Against Crypto Upstarts

Crypto custodians are in a race to build the next State Street or BNY Mellon.

Whither the standalone crypto custodian? (Credit: British Library on Unsplash)

Policy

Libra Is Ready for the Digital Money 'Space Race': Dante Disparte

Libra's most vexing challenge may be juggling inclusion and compliance. But policy chief Dante Disparte says the project is not giving up on reaching the unbanked.

TWO SIDES: Juggling inclusion and compliance remains Libra's most pressing challenge. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Finance

MakerDAO Weighs Accepting Real-World Assets as Crypto Loan Collateral

Decentralized finance may soon boast a real-world use case as MakerDao considers accepting freight invoices as collateral for dai loans.

Credit: Shutterstock

Finance

Behind 'Prime Broker' Buzzword Lies a Complex Strategy Game for Crypto Firms

Coinbase, BitGo and Genesis all announced plans to become prime brokers this month. Here's what the trend reveals about the state of the industry.

Credit: Shutterstock/Tutti Frutti

Finance

Coinbase Buys Tagomi as 'Foundation' of Institutional Trading Arm

Crypto exchange Coinbase is finally acquiring Tagomi, a prime brokerage platform specializing in digital asset trading for institutional clients.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

Finance

VideoCoin Adds Cash Payments and Rewards in Bid to Take On AWS

Halsey Minor’s VideoCoin platform launches Wednesday with fiat payment rails that aim to move the project beyond the limited sphere of crypto.

VOD: Video takes up 80% of the internet. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Policy

Crypto ‘Gray’ Markets Could Be Unintended Consequence of FATF Travel Rule

Clean bitcoin, dirty bitcoin. Could FATF regulations lead to a bifurcation of the crypto space, one where certain digital assets trade at lower prices?

WIDE WORLD: The "Travel Rule" may create a global hodgepodge of regulatory arbitrage opportunities. (Credit: Christine Roy/Unsplash)