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Connor Sephton

Connor Sephton

Connor Sephton is a journalist based in London. Over his 10-year career, he’s worked as a reporter, editor, and newsreader for Metro, Sky News, and the BBC. He has specialized in crypto news since 2018. Disclosure: No significant crypto holdings.

Stories by Connor Sephton

  • Arthur Hayes. Source: BitMEX

    US Likely Won't Purchase Bitcoin, But Arthur Hayes Isn't Worried

    Entrepreneur and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes fears Bitcoin will suffer a "vicious sell-off" around the time Donald Trump takes office. In a characteristically lengthy blog post (which followed a 300-word introduction about yoga) the trader warned that crypto investors have unrealistically high expectations for what the president can achieve. While Trump has promised to make America "the crypto capital of the world" and establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, Hayes says his administration will...

    NewsMarkets
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Source: Shutterstock

    European MP Argues for Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, Says No to Digital Euro

    Sarah Knafo, a French lawmaker who's part of a far-right political group, Reconquête!, wants the bloc to copy U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's campaign promise by creating a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Speaking in Brussels, she declared "it is time to protect our people from inflation and the poor economic choices of our states." She then echoed her remarks on X, formerly known as Twitter. She also warned the European Central Bank's hopes of rolling out a CBDC could lead to a "dystopian world"...

    NewsMarkets
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Image: Anchorage Digital

    Anchorage Digital Nabs BitLicense to Offer Crypto Trading to New York Institutions

    Anchorage Digital has secured a BitLicense in New York, enabling the company to serve institutions in the world's financial capital. "Secure and cost-efficient trading" is set to be on offer from early next year, it said in an announcement on Monday. Companies have said that acquiring a BitLicense is both time consuming and expensive, with just a handful of firms getting the green light from regulators. New York residents and businesses that wish to buy and sell crypto can only transact with pla...

    NewsCoins
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Is Ray Dalio warming up to Bitcoin? Image: Wikipedia

    Billionaire Ray Dalio Prefers Bitcoin as 'Hard Money' Over Bonds

    Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio says a debt crisis is looming in major economies—and "hard money" like Bitcoin and gold is a safer bet. Speaking at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, the founder of Bridgewater Associates revealed he wants to "steer away" from bonds and debt. Dalio warned that "unprecedented levels" of debt in the U.S. and China are unsustainable. "It is impossible for these countries to be able to not have a debt crisis in the years ahead," he said on Tuesday. Inflation has remai...

    NewsCoins
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Changpeng ”CZ” Zhao speaking at the Vietnam NFT Summit in 2022. Image: Aevozer/Wikimedia Commons

    Bitcoin Will Eventually Be Seen as 'Just Money', Says Binance Co-Founder CZ

    Changpeng Zhao is back on the crypto conference circuit and singing the praises of Bitcoin, months after wrapping up a four-month prison sentence in the U.S. Binance's co-founder took part in a fireside chat at the Bitcoin Middle East and North Africa conference on Monday in Dubai, and gave a traditionally bullish view on the digital asset's prospects. "We shouldn't be calling it Bitcoin, it's just money," CZ told the crowd, arguing that its use cases will grow in the years to come. While the bi...

    NewsMarkets
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are soaring. Image created by Decrypt using AI

    Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs Add Billions Amid Record Week: CoinShares

    Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds have witnessed an unprecedented appetite from institutional investors this year, and the numbers, particularly in December, continue to impress. A record-breaking $3.85 billion flowed into digital asset funds last week, fueled by Wall Street's insatiable demand, according to a CoinShares report on Monday. BlackRock's iShares ETFs accounted for $3.2 billion of those inflows, taking its total value of crypto assets under management to $56.7 billion....

    NewsMarkets
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Solana. Image: Shutterstock

    Solana Support Comes to MetaMask With Solflare Integration

    Solana wallet Solflare has launched a new feature enabling MetaMask users to manage their Solana portfolios directly from their existing MetaMask wallet. For years, Solana has been incompatible with MetaMask—meaning crypto enthusiasts needed to create a new wallet to store SOL and NFTs issued on its network. Solflare believes the launch of the new feature will lower barriers of entry to Solana—and encourage Ethereum enthusiasts to give it a go. "MetaMask is by far the most popular wallet out the...

    NewsTechnology
    2 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Cryptocurrency lender Celsius's logo. Source: Shutterstock

    Ex-Algorand Boss Steve Kokinos Tapped as CEO for Firm Buying Celsius

    Steve Kokinos has been proposed as CEO for the company buying Celsius, according to court filings. The former Algorand CEO—who stepped down from that role in July 2022—is among nine names appointed to the board of the appropriately-named Fahrenheit Holdings. Other well-known names include Michael Arrington, who founded his eponymous crypto hedge fund Arrington Capital after being an early investor in Uber and Pinterest. The court documents, submitted on Friday, reveal that the Official Committee...

    NewsBusiness
    2 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Dame Caroline Dinenage, Minister of State for Digital and Culture. Image: Parliament UK

    AI Policy 'Weaknesses' in UK Put Artists at Risk, MPs Warn

    AI developers must be stopped from freely using music, literature and artwork to train their models, a group of British lawmakers have warned. In a new report, the UK government has been told that it must "rebuild trust" with creative industries and introduce safeguards to ensure their intellectual property isn't mined for profit. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee—a cross-party group of Members of Parliament (MPs) that scrutinizes Rishi Sunak's administration—raised several areas of concern...

  • The SEC is the United States primary financial regulator. Image: Shutterstock.

    SEC Charges Hex Founder Richard Heart With $1 Billion Unregistered Securities Offering

    The SEC has charged Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto project Hex, with allegedly conducting unregistered securities offerings that raised more than $1 billion. The Commission also included three unincorporated entities in its charges: PulseChain, PulseX, and Hex. Heart and PulseChain are also both facing charges for allegedly using $12 million in the offerings proceeds to buy luxury goods, including a 555-carat black diamond called "The Enigma." "Heart began marketing Hex in 2018, claimi...

    NewsBusiness
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton, Liam J. Kelly
  • Shiba Inu (SHIB) is the second-largest meme coin by market cap. Image: Shutterstock

    SHIB Devs Begin Testing Shibarium to Ethereum Bridge

    Shibarium, an upcoming SHIB-based, layer-2 network that's being built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, now has a testnet bridge that allows tokens to be transferred between the two networks. But for now, at least, only dummy assets are being supported. Pseudonymous "marketing specialist" Lucie, who represents the Shiba Inu ecosystem, tweeted today that the public testing phase will allow enthusiasts to "be among the first to try out this revolutionary cross-chain solution." 🔥 Shibarium Beta...

    NewsCoins
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton

  • France and Germany Coordinating on Worldcoin Investigation

    European regulators are stepping up their inquiries into Worldcoin—with France and Germany becoming the latest countries to investigate the controversial crypto project. Co-founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman, Worldcoin has embarked on an ambitious drive to scan the irises of millions of people—giving them a "digital passport" in return. The project claims that these World IDs will be crucial as artificial intelligence becomes more influential, and allow humans to prove they aren't robots. "The legal...

    NewsBusiness
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • The U.S. Senate is the upper chamber of the American congress. Image: Shutterstock

    Senate’s $886B Defense Bill Ropes in Crypto Mixers, Privacy Coins

    Crypto mixers and privacy coins might be about to face a fresh crackdown in the U.S. An amendment designed to tackle anonymous transactions and illicit activity has been tacked on to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA.) The $886 billion package has now been given the green light by the Senate—and saw lawmakers on both sides of the crypto debate become unusual bedfellows. Two weeks after introduction, the first pieces of Lummis-Gillibrand have passed the Senate, weeding out bad ac...

    NewsBusiness
    4 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu. Image: TechCrunch Disrupt/Flickr

    Metaverse Giant Animoca Brands Plunges $30M Into Crypto 'Super App' hi

    Web3 neobank hi is saying hello to a new partner. Metaverse gaming conglomerate Animoca Brands is investing $30 million in the financial app, with a view to amplify the NFT utility in the industry. The gaming and metaverse heavyweight is best known for its popular Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox. Meanwhile, hi made headlines after announcing that it was teaming up with Mastercard to launch debit cards customized with CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, and other notable NFT collections. The prod...

    NewsBusiness
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Hackers turn to crypto-jacking. Image: Shutterstock

    Ransomware May Be Dying Out, But Cryptojacking Is Up 399%: Cybersecurity Firm

    Traditional ransomware attacks are in decline as businesses refuse to pay up—but according to a new report by cybersecurity firm SonicWall, cryptocurrencies are still being used to extort unsuspecting victims. A staggering 332.3 million cryptojacking attacks were recorded in the first half of 2023—a 399% increase when compared with the whole of last year. To put this figure into context, that's more than 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined. Cryptojacking involves exploiting servers and devices belongi...

    NewsOur Company
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • The ICO is the UK's primary privacy regulator. Image: Shutterstock.

    UK Privacy Regulator 'Making Enquiries' Into Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Amid Token Launch

    A British regulator has sounded the alarm over Worldcoin, amid fears about the biometric data that the controversial crypto project is gathering. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which champions privacy for individuals, has told Decrypt that organizations need to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment before beginning to process "high risk" data—a key component of Worldcoin’s operations. Co-founded by AI wunderkind Sam Altman, the crypto project is aiming to offer digital passpo...

    NewsBusiness
    2 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Sam Bankman-Fried. Image: Wikimedia Commons

    Sam Bankman-Fried Might Have Leaked Caroline's Diary, But Lawyers Say 'He's Done Nothing Wrong'

    Attorneys representing Sam Bankman-Fried confirm that he talked to and shared documents with The New York Times for a story about Caroline Ellison last week, but insist "he's done nothing wrong." Ellison, his former lover and one-time CEO of Alameda Research, was the subject of an in-depth article in the Gray Lady last week. U.S. prosecutors subsequently claimed that Bankman-Fried, who is facing criminal charges from his ill-fated stint as CEO of FTX, had shared the diary entries with the press...

    NewsBusiness
    4 min read
    Connor Sephton
  • Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin. Image: Shutterstock

    Worldcoin Has 'Major Issues' and Will Take Years to Work, Vitalik Buterin Warns

    Worldcoin launched to much fanfare on Monday—but Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin has identified four "major issues" with the project's design. Founded by Sam Altman—the CEO of OpenAI—the company is offering a "digital passport" that allows owners to prove they're human, and not a bot. This is achieved through the use of Orbs, machines that scan a person's eyeball to create a World ID. In a lengthy new blog post, Buterin argues that an effective, reliable proof-of-personhood system, like Worldcoin, "s...

    NewsTechnology
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton

  • Solana Is Down Meme Dead? Devs Say Network Had 100% Uptime Since Feb

    The Solana Foundation said the network has seen 100% uptime since February—a stark contrast to the outages it experienced last year. But as the foundation readily points out, there's “no guarantees of future network performance.” A slew of outages have dealt a hammer blow to its credibility as "the world's fastest blockchain." The project has released a network performance report for the first time since October 2022, which claims there have been dramatic improvements between February and June t...

    NewsBusiness
    4 min read
    Connor Sephton

  • Coutts Apologizes for 'Unbanking' Bitcoin-Friendly Nigel Farage

    Nigel Farage, a right-wing British politician, has received an apology after his account with a high-end bank was closed because his views didn't align with its "values." Farage—who has been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrencies and appeared at Bitcoin Amsterdam last year—claimed Coutts de-banked him because he was "xenophobic and racist." Coutts, which counts members of the Royal Family among its clientele, had initially denied this—amid reports his balance had fallen below the minimum of £1m (...

    NewsCoins
    3 min read
    Connor Sephton
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