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


Tech

Unstoppable Domains Launches NFT-Based Sign-On for Ethereum and Polygon

So-called “utility NFTs” can also be used to mark positions in DeFi or prove membership in communities, said Unstoppable chief Matthew Gould.

Members of the Unstoppable Domains team. (Unstoppable Domains)

Layer 2

The Mnuchin Files: New Documents Shed Light on Trump-Era Crypto Policy

Jared Kushner advocated behind the scenes for a U.S. digital currency, among other revelations in a 250-page trove from Steven Mnuchin’s tenure at Treasury.

Steven Mnuchin (Illustration: Melody Wang/Photo: Getty Images)

Finance

Elrond Foundation Acquires Crypto Payments Firm Utrust

The merged companies plan to combine DeFi with payments, in a product dubbed “Merchant Yield.”

Elrond staffers pose for a team photo. (Elrond)

Finance

Arab Bank Switzerland Is Quietly Getting Into DeFi

The Swiss sister entity to Jordan-based Arab Bank is offering clients access to AAVE, COMP, UNI and more.

(Arab Bank Switzerland)

Finance

Fireblocks ‘Whitelists’ 30 Trading Firms for Aave’s Institutional DeFi Debut

Aave Arc could usher in a new era of bank-friendly DeFi. Here’s how.

Stani Kulechov, Lens founder, at Consensus 2019 (CoinDesk archive)

Policy

Swiss Central Bank Ready to Run With wCBDC in January: ‘Just Takes a Policy Decision’

SNB has completed testing of a wholesale CBDC with Swiss exchange SDX, and is technically ready to go live, according to governing board member Thomas Moser.

(Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash)

Finance

Bakkt President Adam White Announces His Departure

The founding executive is leaving the Wall Street bitcoin firm. Where to next is unclear.

Adam White speaks at CoinDesk's Invest: NYC 2019. (CoinDesk archives)

Finance

Polkadot Is Deutsche Telekom’s Latest Crypto Experiment

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems purchased a “significant” amount of DOT tokens “to put its money where its mouth is,” according to blockchain lead Andreas Dittrich.

It's a DOT thing. (Kirsten Neumann/Getty Images)

Tech

Gear Technologies Raises $12M to Boost Smart-Contract Development on Polkadot

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood and Three Arrows Capital were among those investing.

(Danil Shostak/Unsplash)

Tech

Polkadot Parachains Go Live, Capping Yearslong Tech Build for Ambitious Blockchain Project

The first five parachains are Acala, Moonbeam, Parallel Finance, Astar and Clover.

An installation in Berlin, Germany, by the polkadot-inspired artist Yayoi Kusama, after whom the Polkadot blockchain's canary network is named. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)