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

IBM Takes 7% Stake in Trade Finance Blockchain Network We.Trade

IBM has become a shareholder in we.trade, the blockchain-based trade-finance platform jointly owned by 12 European banks.

TRADING PLACES: IBM is taking a more active role in we.trade, the trade finance platform. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Finance

Blockchain Sleuthing Firm Elliptic Adds 87 Crypto Assets in Arms Race With Chainalysis

Crypto sleuthing firm Elliptic has added 87 new tokens to its analytics offering, expanding its reach to 97% of digital assets by trading volume.

Elliptical shadows (Shutterstock)

Finance

Staying Alive: Why the World of Enterprise Blockchain Has Turned to Collaborations

Enterprise blockchain isn’t dead, but survival has meant more collaboration and some smart pivots. A dispatch from this week’s Consensus: Distributed.

(Shutterstock)

Finance

R3 Corda Partners With Kaleido After Ethereum Startup Spins Out of ConsenSys

R3, the company behind the Corda blockchain, is edging ever closer to Ethereum, with news of a partnership with enterprise software startup Kaleido.

Kaleido CEO Steve Cerveny speaks at Consensus 2019. (Credit: CoinDesk archives)

Finance

CoinDesk 50: Besu, the Marriage of Ethereum and Hyperledger

Bringing big business to Ethereum's public blockchain is key to reaching "world computer" status, and Besu may be the project to do it.

Brian Behlendorf, Hyperledger

Finance

Crypto.com Lands Record $360M Insurance Cover for Offline Bitcoin Vaults

Crypto.com has gathered a record-breaking $360 million worth of insurance to cover the potential loss of coins stored in special offline vaults.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek speaks at RISE 2018 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Tech

Parity’s Gavin Wood Takes a Swipe at Ethereum

Gavin Wood, an original co-founder of Ethereum, took a few good swipes at the second-largest cryptocurrency he helped create at Consensus: Distributed.

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood

Finance

Tradeshift Proposes Plan to Protect Denmark’s Supply Chains From COVID-19 Crisis

Tradeshift wants the Danish government to try out a supply-chain relief plan that involves the fintech unicorn's blockchain-based trade finance platform.

A lifesaving ring hangs on a iron fence overlooking the sea. (Credit:

Policy

Crypto Firms Establish Messaging Standard to Deal With FATF Travel Rule

The standard defines a uniform model for data that must be exchanged by crypto firms alongside transactions.

shutterstock_1545259322

Finance

IBM, Mastercard Join Digital Identity Project Building 'Ecosystems of Trust'

Mastercard, IBM and the provincial government of British Columbia are among the founding members of the Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation.

TEAM EFFORT: The new Trust over IP Foundation is enlisting big partners to establish digital ID standards. (Credit: Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash)