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 Payments Specialist Baanx Raises $20M Funding Round

The Series A investment round included Ledger, Tezos Foundation, Chiron and British Business Bank.

Group photo of the Baanx team

Finance

Morgan Stanley Evaluating Spot Bitcoin ETFs for Its Giant Brokerage Platform: Sources

Since spot bitcoin ETFs went live in January, chatter has increased about the imminent arrival of the big registered investment advisor (RIA) networks and broker-dealer platforms.

Morgan Stanley (Shutterstock)

Finance

Crypto Custodian Finoa Offers Centrifuge’s Tokenized T-Bill Fund

Tokenized assets pioneer Centrifuge is linking its Anemoy fund to Finoa’s 300-plus crypto institutions.

DeFi, T-bill, Yield, Paradigm

Finance

OANDA Opens FCA-Registered Crypto Trading Platform in the UK

OANDA Crypto is the summation of last year’s acquisition of a majority stake in FCA-registered crypto firm Coinpass, and will offer trading in over 63 cryptocurrency pairs, including bitcoin, ether, and XRP.

Crypto lobbying groups are arguing the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority should rethink some of their ideas for regulating stablecoins. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Finance

DeFi Startup Euler Finance Bounces Back with Revamped Lending Vaults

Euler v2, slated to go live in Q2, combines the Euler Vault Kit (EVK) to build customized lending markets, with an Ethereum Vault Connector (EVC), which enables vaults to be used as collateral for other vaults.

(Pixabay)

Finance

Mastercard’s Latest Crypto Loyalty Scheme Aims to Plug Google Pay Gaps

Mastercard is working with emerging markets-focused mobile payments app Swoo Pay to offer loyalty rewards in cryptocurrency.

close up of Mastercard logo and hologram on a payment card

Policy

Sam Bankman-Fried's Sentence Might Be Lighter Than You'd Expect

Restitution paid to victims can be considered when sentencing, and judges in the Southern District of New York routinely impose shorter terms than guidelines suggest for white-collar cases.

Sam Bankman-Fried, middle, walks into court on Aug. 11, 2023. (Victor Chen/CoinDesk)

Finance

Crypto Custodian Taurus Enlists Lido to Bring Liquid Ethereum Staking to Swiss Banks

Taurus, which counts Deutsche Bank and Santander as partners, expects European jurisdictions to follow Switzerland’s example.

From left to right: Lamine Brahimi, Co-Founder and Managing Partner; Dr. Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Co-Founder and CSO; Oren-Olivier Puder, Co-Founder and Chairman; Sébastien Dessimoz,  Co-Founder and Managing Partner (Taurus)

Finance

Bitcoin ETF First Month Is in the Books: How It Went and What Comes Next

It's been a successful launch, but things could get really interesting once much of the wealth management industry comes on board, which could be sooner than thought.

BitcoinETF: What Comes Next?

Finance

Ripple-Owned Crypto Custody Firm Metaco's CEO and Head of Product Depart

Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani and Chief Product Officer Peter DeMeo have left the crypto custody firm that was acquired by Ripple last year.

Metaco's management team (Metaco)