Jeff John Roberts
Jeff worked at Decrypt from 2021 to 2022. A former lawyer and writer for Fortune and Reuters, Jeff has reported on crypto since 2013. He is the author of the 2019 book about Coinbase, "Kings of Crypto: One Startup's Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street."
Stories by Jeff John Roberts
Crypto Security Firm Forta Launches FORT Tokens
Cybersecurity in crypto is a mess right now—there's another big hack nearly every week. Cybersecurity firm Forta aims to take this on by attempting to build a crypto-first version of centralized cyber firms like CrowdStrike or Palo Alto Networks. And to do it, Forta is releasing its own FORT token, intended to increase the incentives for security researchers to monitor blockchain networks. Forta Foundation's ecosystem lead Andy Beal explained in an interview with Decrypt that Forta takes a decen...
Bitcoin Exchange Blockchain.com Giving Users Free NFT Domains
Early Bitcoin exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com announced on Friday it will give its millions of customers a free NFT domain, a tool that will let them use a simple human-friendly username such as jeff.blockchain in place of the long string of random characters that make up a wallet address. The giveaway is being carried out via Unstoppable Domains, a company that is doing for Web3 what the likes of domain services like GoDaddy did for the internet we are familiar with today. Earlier t...
Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey Launch 'Bitcoin Academy' at Rapper's Childhood Home in Brooklyn
Shawn Corey Carter aka Jay-Z grew up in the Marcy Houses of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. On Thursday, the rapper announced he and Block CEO Jack Dorsey are giving back to his childhood home by creating the Bitcoin Academy, a program to teach financial literacy. The Bitcoin Academy will consist of a series of online and in-person classes beginning later this month, including "What is Money?" and "What is Blockchain?" The program, open to anyone from Marcy Houses, will also include...
PayPal Lets Users Transfer Bitcoin and Ethereum to External Wallets
PayPal announced on Tuesday that crypto users can now move funds off its platform, a long-awaited feature that will make the company's offering more like other popular cryptocurrency services. "Starting today, PayPal supports the native transfer of cryptocurrencies between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges," the financial giant said in a statement. The ability to conduct external transfers on PayPal's crypto platform, an image of which can be seen below, will start rolling out to users toda...
Senate Bill Would End SEC's Oversight of Most Crypto, Create $200 Tax Exemption
The Security and Exchange Commission would lose its authority to regulate a broad swath of the crypto market, including the 200 most valuable cryptocurrencies, under a bipartisan bill unveiled on Tuesday by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The proposed bill, titled the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, is the most comprehensive piece of crypto legislation proposed to date and introduces a raft of other significant measures, including a provision that eliminates the o...
Blockchain Toolkit Alchemy Launches Solana Developer Platform
Alchemy, a company that styles itself as the Amazon Web Services of Web3, announced on Thursday that it is launching a suite of development tools for Solana—a move that could spur further growth on the upstart blockchain. Founded in 2020 by two Stanford grads, Alchemy made its name building tools that simplify common Web3 tasks like writing transactions and hosting nodes. The company's core offerings revolve around Ethereum, but in the last year it has began tailoring its services for other bloc...
Ethereum's Merge is Coming and the Stakes Couldn't Be Higher
Crypto holders can't wait to see the end of May, a month that has brought nothing but losses. And while it's too soon to say whether the worst is over—Bitcoin is below $30,000 right now and could go lower—it feels like the industry will come through the downturn just fine. So long as the Ethereum merge goes off okay, that is. If you've been living under a crypto rock, "The Merge" refers to the long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that will see the No. 2 cryptocurrency switch to a pro...
Hacker Steal Your Crypto? New MetaMask Tool Could Help You Get it Back.
If someone steals your credit card or goes on a shopping spree with your debit card, there's a good chance Visa or your bank will reverse the charges and help you untangle the mess. But for fraud victims in the crypto realm, the experience is very different. "If you lose your crypto, it’s a very humbling and lonely experience. And the amount of people who get scammed twice is huge," says Aidan Larkin, CEO of investigation firm Asset Reality, who notes that victims are often preyed on a second ti...
Crypto Could Use More Centralization: DraftKings CEO
Jason Robins is the co-founder and CEO of DraftKings, the popular sports betting and fantasy sports site. He is also a longtime crypto fan who holds a variety of coins and NFTs—and he has some ideas about how to encourage more people to use crypto. Robins believes the current state of crypto is much like the early internet, which was defined in part by rampant scams and complicated interfaces that intimidated non-tech-savvy users. He's hardly the first to draw that comparison. But he believes w...
Disgraced GOP Rep Faces House Investigation Over 'Let's Go Brandon' Coin
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-SC) lost a recent primary race in the wake of outrageous behavior that included repeatedly breaking the law and accusing fellow members of Congress of engaging in orgies and cocaine use. Now, he has one more headache: The House Committee on Ethics has launched an investigation into his crypto dealings and an alleged dalliance with a staffer. In a statement issued Monday, the committee wrote that Cawthorn "may have improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have...
Could Terra's Do Kwon Go to Prison?
The recent collapse of the stablecoin project known as Terra is one of the biggest catastrophes in the history of crypto, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars. In response, crypto columnist David Z. Morris penned a provocative column likening Terra founder Do Kwon to Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder who is awaiting a criminal sentence for fraud—a fate that Morris believes should befall Kwon. That view is understandable. Like Holmes and her failed blood-testing startup, Kwon relentles...
FTX US Launches Stock Trading, Accounts Can Be Funded With Stablecoins
FTX US announced on Wednesday that select customers can now trade stocks and ETFs, making it the first native crypto exchange to offer equities within its platform. The new product, which the company has been teasing for months, is called FTX Stocks and will let users fund their accounts with the USDC stablecoin as well as bank transfers. For now, FTX Stocks will be available to a small number of customers selected from a waitlist, but the company expects to roll it out to all users by mid-summe...
Coinbase Launches Global 'Think Tank' for Crypto
As the crypto industry faces growing scrutiny from politicians and the media, Coinbase is trying a new tactic to shape the debate: a "global crypto-native think tank." The Coinbase Institute, which was announced on Tuesday, will "cut across many disciplines and provide expert analysis and insights about what’s happening in the global crypto economy." In an interview with Decrypt, Director Hermine Wong—a former SEC and State Department staffer—said a key priority for the institute will be the dis...
Robinhood Plans Ethereum Wallet With DeFi, NFT Trading—And No User Gas Fees
Robinhood is wading deeper into the world of crypto, announcing on Tuesday that the company is building a standalone, non-custodial wallet that will give customers full control over their crypto assets. The company is currently in the process of rolling out wallets to millions of users, but those wallets—so-called custodial wallets—are managed on the back-end by Robinhood. The new product, by contrast, will be akin to Web3-focused products like MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet that give users full c...
Chainlink Hires Google Vet Who Developed TensorFlow AI System
Chainlink is the most popular "oracle" in the crypto ecosystem, serving as an essential source of information for millions of smart contracts—supplying reliable data on everything from prices to asset location to weather. That's why it's notable that Chainlink has hired Kemal El Moujahid, who oversaw product management for Google's machine learning platform known as TensorFlow. TensorFlow is an open-source software library for building artificial intelligence and machine learning programs that's...
7 Big Moments From Bitcoin and Crypto's Craziest Week Ever
Where to begin? In a decade of covering crypto I've seen a lot of crazy things, but never a week like that. In the past, there have certainly been one-off incidents that turned the industry upside down—like the 2014 Mt. Gox hack, or Tesla buying $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, or Elon Musk shilling Dogecoin on SNL—but never a cascade of events like we just saw. In the coming days, there will be plenty of think pieces about what caused the craziness. And just maybe there will be some earnest self...
Yellen Says Crypto Poses No Systemic Risk to Financial System
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told members of Congress on Thursday that she doesn't believe the crypto market has grown to a scale that it poses a "systemic risk"—a designation that can trigger a raft of new regulatory measures. Yellen's comments came during an appearance before the House Committee on Financial Services where members pressed her on macroeconomic issues, but also repeatedly raised the topic of stablecoins—crypto tokens that are meant to maintain a peg to a fiat currency—and the...
Chainsmokers Share New Album Royalties With Fans via NFT Drop in Music Industry First
The electronic music duo The Chainsmokers are best known for catchy hits like "Closer" and "Paris," but they have also made a name for themselves as Web3 innovators. The latest example comes with the release of their new album "So Far So Good," which will include a drop of 5,000 NFTs that will let fans share in 1% of the royalties. This is the most high-profile example to date of musicians using NFTs to share royalties with fans. While artists like Nas and Diplo have issued royalty-generating NF...
'Fire Sale Prices': Coinbase CEO on Stock's 87% Decline Since 2021 Debut
Coinbase shareholders are reeling as the stock price fell about 30% on Wednesday, after the company posted earnings that widely missed analysts' expectations. The stock had already been subject to a widespread selloff due to a broader meltdown in the crypto markets, but Tuesday's earnings report caused it to tumble to around $50 in mid-day trading today. The current price reflects a staggering 87% drop from April of 2021 when Coinbase went public through a direct listing and shares briefly trade...
Coinbase Execs Dismiss Talk of Robinhood Acquisition
Coinbase delivered disappointing results on Tuesday, causing its stock to plunge, but top executives suggested on an earnings call that the company has no major moves planned—such as acquiring or merging with Robinhood. COO Emilie Choi gave short shrift to the idea of a tie-up with the trading app, a topic that was the most upvoted item on a discussion board for investors that Coinbase uses to inform its investor calls. (The idea is seen by some as a quick way for Coinbase to offer stock trading...
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