Sam Kessler

Sam is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for tech and protocols. His reporting is focused on decentralized technology, infrastructure and governance. Sam holds a computer science degree from Harvard University, where he led the Harvard Political Review. He has a background in the technology industry and owns some ETH and BTC. Sam was part of the team that won a 2023 Gerald Loeb Award for CoinDesk's coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX collapse.

Sam Kessler

Latest from Sam Kessler


Tech

Plume, Layer-2 Blockchain for Real-World Assets, Pulls $10M in Seed Funding from Haun, Galaxy

Plume plans to make it possible for people to easily – and compliantly – bring real-world assets (RWAs) like real estate and collectibles onto blockchains.

Plume co-founders Eugene Shen, Chris Yin and Teddy Pornprinya (Plume)

Finance

Bitcoin Is Coming to Ethereum Stalwart MetaMask: Sources

MetaMask is a giant in the Ethereum ecosystem, but it's poised to cross one of the biggest tribal divides in crypto.

Bitcoin is coming to MetaMask (Unsplash)

Policy

Brothers Accused of $25M Ethereum Exploit as U.S. Reveals Fraud Charges

The alleged 12-second attack related to the controversial practice known as MEV, or maximal extractable value.

Department of Justice (Shutterstock)

Tech

Lido Co-Founders, Paradigm Secretly Back EigenLayer Competitor as DeFi Battle Lines Form

The popularity of new blockchain "restaking" protocols led by EigenLayer has drawn a response from the principals behind the liquid staking platform Lido, which itself burst onto the scene a couple of years ago to become the largest project in decentralized finance.

Internal documents obtained by CoinDesk describe the setup of the new project. (Symbiotic)

Tech

EigenLayer Opens Claims for Airdrop of EIGEN Token, Though It's Non-Transferable

The much-hyped restaking project initiated its long-awaited though highly controversial plan to distribute EIGEN tokens, by opening a window of time where eligible users can claim them. They're not freely tradeable, but speculators in side markets put the fully diluted value around $15 billion.

EigenLayer CEO Sreeram Kannan. (Bradley Keoun)

Tech

EigenLayer's EIGEN Airdrop Might Signal Demise of Once-Popular 'Points'

EIGEN's airdrop comes after a wave of criticism of its distribution plan and points program.

Crypto projects are offering "points" to lure in new users. (Sigmund/Unsplash)

Finance

Sexual Misconduct Allegations Lead Founder of Ethereum Layer-2 Chain 'Eclipse' to Step Back

Neel Somani, founder of Ethereum scaling chain Eclipse, said multiple sexual misconduct allegations circulating against him on X were "false."

Eclipse founder Neel Somani has stepped back as a "public face" for the company amid sexual misconduct allegations. (Andrew Gonzalez Photography

Tech

Thiel-Backed Cryptography Startup Lagrange Raises $13M

Lagrange, which specializes in zero-knowledge cryptography, is the latest startup to ride EigenLayer's "restaking" wave.

Peter Thiel holding cash (Rachel Sun/CoinDesk)