Stephen Graves

What is Dogecoin?

What happens when a joke gets taken seriously? In 2013, Dogecoin (DOGE) was created as a way to poke fun at the crypto industry; now it's one of the world's biggest cryptocurrencies. How did it get to this point? What is Dogecoin? Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that takes its name from the "doge" Internet meme. It started as a way to mock the industry, but quickly built up a lively community of enthusiasts. It has come a long way since 2013, briefly hitting a market cap of $88 billion during its

OSF's “Super Fan” on display at HOFA. Image: HOFA

NFT Artist and Collector OSF: 'NFTs Are Just a Medium'

London’s House of Fine Art (HOFA) gallery is one of the pioneers of the crypto art scene, being one of the first venues to showcase NFT artworks in a physical space back in 2021. Back then, it took a somewhat conservative approach, focusing on prints of CryptoPunks alongside physical sculptures and NFT-adjacent work. This time around, its "Beyond the Screen" exhibition is dialing up the digital element, with vibrant screens displaying eye-popping animated work by the likes of XCOPY, OSF and DeeK

Avenged Sevenfold Frontman M. Shadows: AI an 'Incredible Tool' for Musicians

The rapid growth of AI is forcing writers, artists, and musicians to grapple with how artificial intelligence will change the way they work. One musician who’s enthused about the possibilities is Avenged Sevenfold frontman Matt Sanders (a.k.a. M. Shadows), who told Decrypt’s gm podcast that “AI can be incredibly useful” for songwriters. “You're using AI to not only spark ideas, but you're using it a much quicker way to kind of get to some of these cool little nuggets of gold,” he said. “If you

DOJ: Crypto Assets 'Touch Every Aspect of Criminal Activity We Investigate'

From ransomware payments demanded in cryptocurrencies to state actors using digital assets to circumvent sanctions and other restrictions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is raising the alert that crypto is expanding into every area the agency is exploring. “We are seeing cryptocurrency and digital assets really touch every aspect of criminal activity we investigate,” stated the DOJ’s director of National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), Eun Young Choi at a recent conference hosted by the

Fred Thiel is the chairman and CEO of crypto mining firm Marathon Digital. Image: Stephen Graves/Decrypt.

Marathon Digital CEO: Crypto Crash Has Cleaned Out ‘Unsavory Operators’

The crypto winter has helped clean out “unsavory operators” in the industry, Marathon Digital’s chief executive has said. Speaking at the Financial Times’s Crypto and Digital Assets Summit, Fred Thiel compared last year’s market upheaval to the dot-com boom, which saw an “initial hype cycle” give way to a “commercialization phase.” “I think this period of stress that the crypto market has gone through is cleaning out a lot of unsavory operators,” the executive, whose company operates Bitcoin min

Sandra Lee is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Image: Stephen Graves/Decrypt.

FSOC’s Policy Recommendations Could Have Prevented FTX: Deputy Assistant

Sandra Lee of the FSOC said that the collapse of FTX could’ve been avoided the following month had the recommendations of a report from last October been more closely studied. Speaking at a Financial Times panel on crypto regulation this morning, Lee said “last fall, the council published a report on digital assets and instability and identified various risks and potential recommendations.” The FSOC was established in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act and it works under the U.S. Treasury. It comprises

Hester Peirce is a crypto-friendly SEC Commissioner. Image: Stephen Graves/Decrypt.

Europe’s Crypto Regulations Can Be a 'Model' for Rules in US, Says Hester Peirce

Europe’s landmark crypto regulation could serve as a model for the U.S., a top American regulator has said. Hester Peirce, a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who has previously been outspoken in her support for crypto, expressed her admiration for the speed at which the European Union put together its digital finance package. Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) was passed by the European Parliament last month, putting in place a comprehensive framework for crypto regulati

Bushi is a samurai-themed shoot-'em-up. Image: Onenet

Bushi Puts a Samurai Twist on Overwatch's Hero Combat

Looking for an NFT-enabled game with an Overwatch-like hero shooter vibe? Bushi from Web3 studio Onenet may fit the bill: it's a fast-paced, third-person arena combat title with game mechanics reportedly inspired by the likes of Spellbreak, GunZ The Duel, and battle royale smash Fortnite. Although it’s currently in open alpha, the game already feels surprisingly polished, built as it is atop the powerful and industry-leading Unreal Engine 5 development suite. It’s clear that considerable effort

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and James Gunn. Images: Shutterstock

AOC, Hollywood Stars Are 'Skeeting' on Bluesky

Don't call it a tweet if you're using Bluesky. Instead, the influx of new Bluesky users has adopted the faintly obscene-sounding term "skeeting" to describe the act of posting on the platform. The latest wave of new users to the Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized social media app Bluesky includes a wide variety of politicians and Hollywood filmmakers too. Among the big names joining the platform are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has over 13 million followers on rival platform Twitter,

Bitcoin's price is down. Image: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Plunges 7% in an Hour to Under $28,000 as 'Mt. Gox Alert' Causes Confusion

Editor's note: This story and its headline were updated after publication to clarify that Arkham's 'Mt. Gox alert' was reported in error. Bitcoin erased the gains made earlier today, plunging as much as 7% in an hour to below $28,000, per CoinGecko data. At time of publication, the price of Bitcoin stood at just under $27,750, down 4.6% on the day and 8.4% over the past week. The wider crypto market crashed alongside Bitcoin, with the top 10 coins by market cap all down over the past hour and 24

"Avengers" director Joe Russo. Image: Marvel Studios/Shutterstock

‘Avengers’ Director Predicts AI-Generated Movies Within Two Years

Joe Russo, director of Marvel Studios blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame,” has predicted that it'll only be two years until we see an AI-generated movie that's convincing enough to give viewers pause. Speaking on a panel at the Sands International Film Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland, Russo was joined by Epic Games CCO Donald Mustard, who predicted that an AI-generated movie could arrive even sooner than Russo’s two-year timeframe. Russo, who holds positions on the boards of “a few AI companies,”

Google Merges AI Teams Under DeepMind Banner

Google parent company Alphabet has announced the launch of Google DeepMind, a new AI-focused group within the company that combines its existing DeepMind and Brain teams. The move will "significantly accelerate our progress in AI," Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post accompanying the announcement. He added that, "To ensure the bold and responsible development of general AI, we’re creating a unit that will help us build more capable systems more safely and responsibly." Dee

Bluesky is a federated alternative to Twitter. Image: Shutterstock.

Bluesky, Jack Dorsey's Decentralized Twitter Rival, Launches An Android App

Bluesky, the decentralized Twitter alternative backed by the social media platform's former CEO Jack Dorsey, has launched an Android app. The platform's launch on Android follows the release of an app on Apple's iOS in March. Bluesky is also available for desktop users in a testing environment at staging.bsky.app. For the time being, Bluesky is restricted to users who've joined through a waitlist, or who've received an invite code from an existing user. The platform currently has around 25,000 u

PILE OF COINS c. Rodrigo Martinez/Decrypt

What Is Ethereum?

Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, is a blockchain-powered platform for creating decentralized applications (dapps). Where Bitcoin was designed as a currency and a store of value, Ethereum is a decentralized network for running smart contracts—code that runs on a peer-to-peer network and is verified by Ethereum's blockchain. The idea is to create applications that are secure, transparent and censorship-resistant, since they don't rely on centralized platforms. Ethereum ha

(L-R) Ioana Surpateanu, Non-Executive Director & Chief Innovation Officer, CryptoUK & Swash, Teana Baker-Taylor, Vice President, UK/EU Policy & Regulatory Strategy, Circle and Nathalie Oestmann, Chief Operating Officer, Outlier Ventures. Image: Decrypt

Circle VP: UK Banks 'Actively Unbanking People, Not Just Companies' Over Crypto

Actions taken by UK banks to restrict customer access to crypto are “not in the spirit of consumer protection,” Circle’s European policy lead said at an event last week. Amid concerns that crypto firms are facing difficulties accessing banking services in the UK, Teana Baker-Taylor said individual customers were also being affected. “One thing I think that is pretty clear is the UK banks are now actively unbanking people, not just companies,” Baker-Taylor said during a panel discussion at Citi's

Panelists discussing crypto regulations at the Citi Digital Money Symposium. Image: Decrypt.

Policymakers Didn't Regulate Crypto 'Because They Thought It Would Essentially Die': Barclays Head of Digital Policy

The latest uptick in regulatory action around the globe may be due to policymakers finally waking up to cryptocurrencies. On a recent panel at the Citi Digital Money Symposium in London, which touched on crypto regulations in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, Barclays head of digital policy Nicole Sandler argued that the apparent late arrival from policymakers was actually intentional. "I think one thing certain policymakers have said is that they left this market to do what it

Citi panel discussion called "Digital Money 2.0--CBDCs, Stablecoins & More." Image: Decrypt.

CBDC Can Be 'Bridging Asset' Between Bitcoin, TradFi: Bank of England

Can CBDCs and Bitcoin ever coexist? The Bank of England's CBDC lead Katie Fortune thinks so. Asked during a panel at the Citi Digital Money Symposium about how potential state-issued central bank digital currencies CBDCs would coexist with Bitcoin or asset-backed stablecoins, Fortune said that the BoE sees a mixed ecosystem of different forms of money, somewhat similar to what is there today with different mechanics for bank deposits and cash. CBDCs are digital currencies issued by a country's c

Panelists discussing the rise of crypto at the Citi Digital Money Symposium. Image: Decrypt.

Citi Says Mass Adoption of Crypto Will Be Driven by CBDCs, Tokenization

Citi says the industry is finally "approaching an inflection point" and that blockchain technology will soon see "billions of users and trillions of dollars in value." In its latest report "Money, Tokens, and Games: Blockchain's Next Billion Users and Trillions in Value," Citi analysts suggest that the next influx of crypto adoption will be powered primarily by the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the tokenization of real-world assets. CBDCs are alternatives to cryptocurrencie

Kevin Smith, Web3 Film Fund Decentralized Pictures Award $40,000 to Comedy Filmmakers

Web3 film funding platform Decentralized Pictures has awarded its $40,000 Kevin Smith Comedy Screenplay Award to the short film script “Holy Smokes.” Written by Gabby Fiszman and Isabella Ares, the film is billed as a “dark stoner comedy that features Latinx representation,” in which Catholic School survivors Emma and Lauren embark on a “sin-filled roadtrip.” “We were inspired to write 'Holy Smokes' because we wanted to see ourselves as Latina women and our generation’s sense of humor represente

"Calladita" (dir. Miguel Faus). Image: Miguel Faus

'Calladita' Director: Filmmakers Need New NFT Funding Models, 'The Space Moves So Rapidly'

Director Miguel Faus made headlines with his novel approach to funding his feature film "Calladita" by selling NFTs. But, he cautions, he "wouldn't recommend" that other filmmakers duplicate his approach exactly because the Web3 filmmaking space has already moved on. "Our mint collection worked quite well, and we were able to fund the movie—but that's over now," he told Decrypt at the NFT Paris conference. "The space moves so rapidly, that model is gone," he explained, adding that it's importan

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Stories by Stephen Graves