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

Inside North Korea's Favorite Crypto Laundering Tool: THORChain

Researchers say North Korea used THORChain to launder $1.2 billion following the biggest-ever crypto heist.

THORSwap is a cross-chain decentralized exchange built on THORChain. (Manuel Salinas/Unsplash)

Tech

Cap Raises $11M for Stablecoin Engine as Industry Heats Up

A recent $8 million funding round will be used to develop Cap’s stablecoin engine, which is slated to launch later this year.

Kujira will issue its own stablecoin. (Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Tech

EigenLayer Finally Ready to Launch Crucial Missing Feature

Slashing could allow the restaking pioneer to make good on its "shared security" promise.

EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan

Tech

Ethereum Developers Lock in May 7 for Pectra Upgrade

The decision to schedule Pectra was made just over a week after the upgrade went live on the Hoodi testnet without any hiccups.

The latest Ethereum upgrade, Pectra, is partly named after Electra, one of the "seven sisters" in the star constellation known as Pleiades (Wikipedia)

Tech

Ethereum’s Final Pectra Test Goes Live on Hoodi Network

The upgrade is the last of three tests, and developers previously agreed they would schedule Pectra 30 days from Wednesday if the test ran smoothly.

Ethereum Abstract Crystal

Tech

Ethereum to Sunset ‘Holesky’ Testnet in September

The deprecation plan comes after Holesky fell offline due to a faulty test of Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra update.

Ethereum Abstract Crystal

Tech

Arbitrum Ecosystem Unveils 'Onchain Labs' to Support Early-Stage Projects

The new program is designed to provide go-to-market support to "experimental and volatile" projects, according to Arbitrum's main developer.

The co-founders of Offchain Labs, the firm behind Arbitrum. (Offchain Labs)

Tech

Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes a New Testnet

Ethereum's 'Pectra' upgrade will be tested on Hoodi following buggy attempts on other testnets, Holesky and Sepolia.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Tech

Sam Altman's World Network and Razer Want to Defeat Gaming's Bot Problem

The teams are releasing “Razer ID verified by World ID,” which is a single sign-on mechanism that will verify real human gamers from bots.

Worldcoin co-founders Alex Blania and Sam Altman (Marc Olivier/Worldcoin)

Policy

Court Approves 3AC’s $1.53B Claim Against FTX, Setting Up Major Creditor Battle

A Delaware bankruptcy court allowed Three Arrows Capital to dramatically expand its claim against FTX, further complicating creditor payouts.

Three Arrows co-founder Su Zhu speaks at FTX's Crypto Bahamas event in 2022 (Tracy Wang/CoinDesk)