Daniel Roberts

Bitcoin NFT happy hour at PubKey bar. Photo: Andre Beganski

NFT NYC Again Showcased the Resilience of Web3 Culture

On Tuesday, a financial reporter friend texted me to ask if I'd be attending NFT NYC events the next day. "How is it even happening this year when the volume is so low," she asked. I sent her a spreadsheet that listed 180 different events happening in the next three days all around the city—there was plenty to do. By Wednesday afternoon, I was standing outside Samsung's Future+ launch event doing an interview with a radio reporter who asked me whether this year's event felt like a shell of what

Former SEC Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman (L), current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

Every Crypto Project Must Reckon With the SEC's Howey Test

Nearly five years ago, SEC official Bill Himan stood on stage at a Yahoo Finance crypto summit in San Francisco and delivered a prepared speech that concluded that Ethereum (ETH) is not a security. A footnote on the SEC's website clarified that the speech "expresses the author’s views and does not necessarily reflect those of the Commission," but it was nonetheless taken exactly that way. Hinman's speech came just one week after then-SEC chair Jay Clayton said that the SEC does not view Bitcoin

SEC Warns Coinbase of Enforcement Over Its Staking Rewards Products

Coinbase received a Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, alleging that the company's staking products constitute unregistered securities. The notice also mentions "aspects of Coinbase's exchange... and Coinbase Wallet." A person familiar with the matter told Decrypt that Coinbase is "confident it will be able to defend its position in court." The source also said Coinbase leadership is frustrated that the SEC has allowed American investors to participate in cryp

Brigitte Macron checks out a booth at NFT Paris on February 24, 2023 as NFT Paris Co-founder Alexandre Tsydenkov looks on. (Image: LA FRENCH IMAGERIE)

When Brigitte Macron Came to NFT Paris

I was one of the 18,000 people to enter the Grand Palais Éphémère, a huge domed exhibition hall facing the Eiffel Tower, for NFT Paris three weeks ago. The event has stuck with me more than most crypto conferences do—and I attend a lot of crypto conferences. First off, I was blown away by the energy, positivity, and seriousness of the attendees, panel chats, and art displays. I was struck by how many global consumer and luxury brands were on hand—Adidas, Salesforce, Volkswagen, Panerai, Warner

Crypto Market Rallies on FDIC Banking Intervention, USDC Regains Dollar Peg

The market cap of all cryptocurrencies is back above the $1 trillion mark. After a joint statement from the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, and FDIC declared that all depositors of now-shuttered Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will be able to get their funds out on Monday, the battered crypto market turned green. Late on Sunday night, Bitcoin (BTC) was up to $22,300 and Ethereum (ETH) was at $1,596, both up around 8% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap price data. Top-30 coin

USDC Stablecoin Falls to 87 Cents After Circle Discloses Exposure to Silicon Valley Bank

US Dollar Coin, the No. 2 stablecoin by market cap, designed to remain always priced at $1, is currently trading at 91 cents, according to data on both CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. It fell as low as 87 cents overnight, below its prior all-time-low of 89 cents in May 2019. On Saturday morning, it had begun to recover. The depegging happened after Circle, the issuer of USDC, disclosed on Friday night that some $3.3 billion worth of the cash reserves that back USDC remain held at Silicon Valley Ban

Neal Stephenson on Decrypt's gm podcast. (Illustration by Grant Kempster)

'Snow Crash' Author Neal Stephenson Says Future of the Metaverse Won't Require Goggles

Neal Stephenson coined the word "metaverse" in his seminal 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. 30 years later, Sotheby's is auctioning off rare items associated with the book, and Stephenson is working on a new layer-1 blockchain company for the metaverse, Lamina1. The company's stated purpose is to help creators build the "open metaverse," the term Stephenson says he uses to differentiate it from the current corporate versions of metaverse. Calling it an "open" metaverse, Stephenson said on the late

Blockchain.com Shopping Assets to Fill $270M Hole From Three Arrows Capital: Sources

Blockchain.com, the early Bitcoin wallet provider and exchange that boasted a $14 billion valuation as recently as last March, has been attempting to sell off assets in a scramble for capital. Decrypt has learned from multiple sources of calls in December and January on which Blockchain.com senior executives have shopped parts of its business, including to Coinbase. Decrypt has also seen a private email setting up one of these calls. A spokesperson for Blockchain.com denied that such calls have

Bitzlato meme shared on Twitter by @HsakaTrades.

The US Government Wants You To Know It's Cracking Down on Crypto

The jokes wrote themselves. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice declared ominously that it would hold a live press conference at noon to announce an "International Cryptocurrency Enforcement Action." Crypto Twitter panicked, and so did crypto prices. Bitcoin and Ethereum each fell nearly 5% in just a few minutes, amounting to a flash crash. Which big player was caught in the DOJ's crosshairs? Binance was a popular bet, and CZ didn't help matters by tweeting just "4," which he announced

2022 Wasn't All Bad for Crypto (Just Mostly)

Crypto had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year in 2022. Coins began tanking at the start of Q2 and never rallied; Terra collapsed in May, leading to the bankruptcies of Celsius, Voyager, and Three Arrows Capital; the Feds sanctioned Tornado Cash in August; FTX collapsed in November, leading to the bankruptcy of BlockFi and warning signs from Genesis and Digital Currency Group. The whole world is watching crypto right now—for the wrong reasons. But the year wasn't all bad. The industry

Apollo acquired Yahoo as part of a $5 billion deal for Verizon Media Group in 2021. Image: Shutterstock.

Yahoo to Offer Retail Stock Trading—Is Crypto Next?

Private equity giant Apollo Global bought Verizon Media—a group that includes Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, AOL, TechCrunch, Engadget, and Autoblog—in May 2021 for $5 billion. Now its revenue strategy for those properties is becoming clearer. Axios reports that Apollo plans to offer sports betting through Yahoo Sports, and retail stock trading on Yahoo Finance. There are signs it will also look at adding crypto trading. In the summer of 2021, shortly after announcing it would acquire Yahoo, Apol

Blockchain. copyright Rodrigo Martinez for Decrypt

What Is a Blockchain?

Blockchain started with Bitcoin, but there are no limits to where this technology could go in future. Projects like Ethereum and Ripple have taken the principles of blockchain and taken it in new directions. A blockchain is, very simply, an online record of transactions. They could be transactions for: Money The movement of goods Exchanges in information What is a blockchain—diving deeper A blockchain is a growing set of records, bunched together into ‘blocks’ which are linked together using c

how-to-buy nft coin c Rodrigo Martinez/Decrypt 2022

What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin started it all. It was the first cryptocurrency, and it launched an industry that now includes thousands. But who invented it, how does it work, and why is it so important? What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency whose transactions are logged on a public, decentralized, immutable ledger. This ledger, the blockchain, allows everyone to be witnesses to the transactions and to how they are verified. The first official purchase using Bitcoin was for pizza in May 2010.

BlockFi is a crypto lending firm. Image: Shutterstock

Crypto Lender BlockFi Filing for Bankruptcy and Conducting Major Layoffs as FTX Contagion Claims Another: Source

The FTX contagion has just claimed another crypto firm. BlockFi will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection later today, a source at the company tells Decrypt. In an official announcement, the New Jersey-based company said it "will focus on recovering all obligations owed to BlockFi," but that "recoveries from FTX will be delayed" due to the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings at the fallen crypto exchange. The crypto lender is also laying off a large portion of its staff, the source said. BlockF

SBF US COO Sina Nader, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and Tom Brady onstage at Crypto Bahamas on April 28, 2022. (Photo: Michael Healy)

5 Lessons From the Stunning Implosion of SBF and FTX

It turns out Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't "the next Warren Buffett." Just six months ago I was in The Bahamas at the FTX/SALT conference, where Sam was treated like Taylor Swift. He chatted onstage with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Gisele Bundchen. Posed for selfies with admirers. Interviewed Tom Brady about the art of winning—and found time to make some TikTok videos with him. Brady has since deleted those videos amid Sam's total public disgrace. But FTX's damage and impact on the entire crypto i

Edward Snowden speaks to Decrypt's Dan Roberts at Camp Decrypt 2022 in Napa Valley on Oct. 27, 2022. (Photo: Chie Endo)

Edward Snowden: Sanctioning of Ethereum Mixer Tornado Cash Was 'Deeply Illiberal and Profoundly Authoritarian'

Three months after the U.S. government blacklisted the Ethereum mixing tool Tornado Cash, Edward Snowden called it a "do or die moment" that people in the crypto community "largely aren't taking seriously enough." Snowden, who exposed an unlawful mass surveillance program by the NSA nearly 10 years ago and fled the United States, also helped launch the privacy coin Zcash in 2016, a leaked video earlier this year revealed. Over the past few years, he has been a vocal crypto advocate, though he h

BlockFi is a Bitcoin lending firm. Image: Shutterstock

BlockFi Mulls Bankruptcy Filing and Layoffs in Wake of FTX Collapse, Met With Binance

Crypto lending platform BlockFi is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and preparing for job cuts in the wake of the collapse of closely-linked crypto exchange FTX, a source at the company told Decrypt on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the potential bankruptcy filing. In its exploration of next steps, BlockFi has also had talks with Binance about possible financial help. BlockFi paused customer withdrawals last Thursday night, and on Monday reaffirmed tha

FTX Arena, formerly the American Airlines Center, home of the Miami Heat. (Image: FTX)

FTX Spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on Sports Marketing on Road to Bankruptcy

Crypto derivatives exchange FTX launched in 2019 and soared to a $32 billion valuation in just three years—now the rocket ride is ending in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Along the way, the company—flush with trading fee revenue from the mainstream crypto boom during the pandemic—spent big on sports marketing deals to raise customer awareness. In the second half of 2021 alone, FTX and/or FTX US signed deals with the NBA's Miami Heat (stadium naming rights), Major League Baseball (as the official crypto

Elon Musk, Twitter, Dogecoin, Bluesky, and the Decentralized Social Media Race

Elon actually did it. The gleeful jester king of Crypto Twitter—whose tweets about Dogecoin have repeatedly moved the price, whose July 2018 "pedo guy" tweet about a British cave diver landed him in court for defamation (he won), whose August 2018 "funding secured" tweet led to securities fraud charges from the SEC ($20 million fine)—now owns Twitter Inc. When this story began six months ago (!) with Musk's original $44 billion offer, I wrote, "Musk probably won't get to buy Twitter. But crypto

BAYC co-founders Wylie Aronow (left) and Greg Solano joined Decrypt's gm podcast.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Founders Talk SEC Investigation and Getting 'Doxxed'

Last week brought news that rocked the NFT world: The SEC is investigating Bored Ape Yacht Club parent company Yuga Labs over potential securities violations for the sale of Bored Ape NFTs as well as ApeCoin tokens, according to Bloomberg, citing an anonymous source. The news sent APE down more than 10% and has some legal experts saying SEC Chair Gary Gensler is clearly widening his regulatory net to include NFTs. But if you ask Bored Ape Yacht Club co-founder Greg Solano, "It's not that surpri

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Stories by Daniel Roberts