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

Crypto and DeFi Wallet Firm Fordefi Gets Cover from Insurance Giant Munich Re

Insurance broker Lockton’s Emerging Asset Protection (LEAP) team helped organize the Munich Re deal.

The Fordefi team (Fordefi)

Finance

Nasdaq, After Pivoting Crypto Ambitions to Tokenized T-bills, Sees Staffers Exit Amid Delays: Sources

After ending its crypto custody plan, Nasdaq pivoted to tokenized U.S. Treasuries, but progress was too sluggish for some now-former employees, a person familiar with the matter said.

Nasdaq (Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress via Getty)

Finance

Crypto Custody Tech Firm Fireblocks Seeks New York-Regulated Trust Company

The firm also convening a crypto custodian partner program with a starting line up of companies from the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.

Fireblocks sign at Miami airport during Bitcoin Miami conference 2022 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Finance

Crypto Exchange Bitpanda Expands Austrian Presence With Raiffeisen Bank Partnership

Earlier this week, Bitpanda said it was opening a Dubai office, making UAE the choice of its first expansion outside of Europe.

The founders of Bitpanda (L-R) Christian Trummer, Paul Klanschek, Eric Demuth (Bitpanda)

Finance

Crypto Gets Another 'Neighborhood Watch' to Guard Against Hacks

Justine Bone, a cybersecurity firebrand whose research led to recalls of half a million faulty pacemakers, leads the soon-to-launch information-sharing and analysis center (ISAC) for crypto firms.

Justine Bone, executive director of Crypto ISAC.

Finance

MoonPay Users Can Now Buy Crypto Via PayPal

The partnership means MoonPay users in the U.S. can seamlessly buy crypto with PayPal through wallet transfer, bank transfer, and debit card transactions, according to a press release.

paypal logo on a smartphone booting up the payments app (Marques Thomas/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Finance

BlackRock Sees Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pensions Coming to Bitcoin ETFs

The asset manager has been helping educate pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds about the new spot bitcoin ETF products, BlackRock’s head of digital assets said.

(Jim Henderson, modified by CoinDesk)

Tech

Blockchain Sleuth Elliptic Explores AI and Anti-Money Laundering Using 200M Bitcoin Transactions

Patterns of illicit activity involving groups of bitcoin nodes and chains of transactions are described in a research paper by Elliptic and MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson (center) is one of the authors of the AI research paper (CoinDesk archives)

Finance

Paradigm Special Counsel Has Left the Crypto-Focused VC Firm

Rodrigo Seira has rejoined Cooley LLP, the law firm where he worked previously, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam (Brady Dale/CoinDesk)

Finance

Crypto Custody Firm Fireblocks Now Offers DeFi Threat Detection for Institutions

The dApp Protection and Transaction Simulation products can check decentralized applications across 40+ blockchains via WalletConnect, Fireblocks’ browser extension, and MetaMask Institutional.

Fireblocks sign at Miami airport during Bitcoin Miami conference 2022 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)