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Stephen Graves

Stephen Graves

Stephen oversees sponsored content, Learn, and other special editorial and commercial projects at Decrypt. Previously he has contributed to titles including Stylus, Stuff, and LS:N Global.

Stories by Stephen Graves

  • Robinhood Chain. Image: Decrypt

    What Is Robinhood Chain? The Ethereum Layer-2 Network for Tokenized Stocks and Meme Coins

    Robinhood Chain is a blockchain network developed by Robinhood, the financial services company behind the stock and crypto trading platform. Launched on mainnet on July 1, 2026, Robinhood Chain brings together tokenized assets, decentralized finance (DeFi), and smart contracts that can power crypto applications. Johann Kerbrat, SVP and general manager of crypto and international at Robinhood, said in a statement that pairing traditional finance with DeFi would extend "financial ownership to ever...

  • Christopher Nolan. Image: Universal Studios/Decrypt

    'The Odyssey' Director Chris Nolan: Young Audiences are Rejecting 'AI Slop'

    “The Odyssey” director Christopher Nolan famously doesn’t use a smartphone, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that he isn’t on board with the latest tech buzzphrase. On the press tour for his latest effort, Nolan told The Telegraph that young audiences are “utterly rejecting” generative AI, adding that, “I’ve never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology in my lifetime.” He pointed to the reaction of his four children, in their late teens and early 20s....

  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF). Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Scale of Stablecoin Adoption in Nigeria Makes Risks 'More Pronounced', Says IMF

    The pace of stablecoin adoption in Nigeria has highlighted the benefits of dollar-pegged crypto assets—and sharpened their risks, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund. IMF researchers noted that stablecoins have “become a meaningful cross-border payments channel,” with the country receiving some $59 billion in crypto-asset inflows between July 2023 and June 2024, and accounting for 60% of stablecoin inflows within sub-Saharan Africa since 2019. While conceding that stabl...

    NewsMarkets
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Strategy is the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Source: Decrypt/Twitter

    Michael Saylor's Bitcoin Treasury Firm Strategy Sells 32 BTC for $2.5M

    Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy sold 32 BTC from its holdings last week for roughly $2.5 million, per an SEC filing. The average sale price was $77,135 per Bitcoin, and brings Strategy's holdings down to 843,706 BTC, worth approximately $61 billion at current prices. Funds from the sale of BTC will be used to fund distributions on preferred stock, the firm said in the filing. As the opening bell rang on Monday, Strategy’s stock price plunged. The Bitcoin-buying firm’s shares fell more than 8.5% t...

    NewsMarkets
    4 min read
    Stephen Graves, André Beganski
  • Nigel Farage. Source: Decrypt/Shutterstock

    Reform UK's Nigel Farage Faces Standards Probe Over Tether Billionaire's $6.7 Million Gift

    The U.K.’s Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is reportedly launching an inquiry into a $6.7 million (£5 million) gift received by Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage from billionaire Tether investor Christopher Harborne. Farage declared he was under “no obligation” to declare the gift, which was made before he announced his intention to stand in the 2024 general election. "Believe you me, we've looked at this from every legal angle," he told broadcasters earlier this week. He claimed that the gi...

    NewsLaw and Order
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • HM Treasury. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    UK Treasury: Digital Assets Have Potential for 'Complete Transformation' of Markets

    Digital assets have the potential to effect sweeping changes on U.K. financial markets, according to Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Assets Summit, Rigby said that digital assets offer benefits including “efficiencies generally, but also just everything happening much more speedily.” She added that it’s important to consider “what that actually means for business,” including quicker capital flows and “capital being freed up for other things...

    NewsBusiness
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • The Bank of England. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Bank of England Treating Stablecoins as 'New Form of Money', Says Exec

    With the Bank of England gearing up to accept applications from would-be stablecoin issuers, its executive director of financial market infrastructure explained that the central bank is treating stablecoins as “a new form of money.” Speaking in a panel discussion at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit, Sasha Mills noted that, “By the end of the year, we will be open and welcoming applications” from those looking to launch “a systemic stablecoin for widely used payments in the U.K.” Ahead o...

    NewsBusiness
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov. Image: Decrypt

    Quantum Computing Threat 'Mostly a Coordination Issue' for Bitcoin: Fireblocks CEO

    The threat posed by quantum computing to the cryptographic signature schemes employed by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is “not actually a threat as people make it out to be,” according to Michael Shaulov, CEO of crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks. Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit, Shaulov argued that “the entire internet industry needs to basically leapfrog and start using post-quantum encryption,” adding that, “generally speaking, we have the available algorithm...

    NewsTechnology
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Nigel Farage. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Tether Stakeholder Gave Farage Undisclosed $6.7M Gift Amid Reform UK Crypto Funding Scrutiny

    Christopher Harborne, a billionaire with a 12% stake in USDT stablecoin issuer Tether, gave Nigel Farage a previously undisclosed $6.7 million (£5 million) gift in 2024. The donation, first reported in The Guardian, was to pay for his personal security, Farage later told The Daily Telegraph. The payment was reportedly structured as a personal gift and was never officially disclosed under UK campaign finance laws. At the time Farage received the gift, he had not announced plans to run as a Membe...

    NewsLaw and Order
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • French police. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    French Police Rescue Mother and Child After $400K Crypto Ransom Kidnapping

    A mother and her 11-year-old son were kidnapped from their home in Burgundy on Monday in a ransom plot targeting the father's cryptocurrency business, marking the latest violent crime against crypto entrepreneurs in France. The four attackers held the victims overnight before France's elite GIGN police unit rescued them from a hotel room in Val-de-Marne on Tuesday around 6am, according to the report. The kidnappers reportedly seized about $17,800 (€10,000) in cash and valuables after tying up th...

    NewsLaw and Order
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Circle is the issuer behind USDC. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Circle 'Exploring' Arc Network Token Launch, Proof-of-Stake Shift: CEO

    Circle is “exploring” a token for its stablecoin-focused Layer-1 blockchain Arc Network, the firm’s CEO Jeremy Allaire has stated. Speaking at a company event in Seoul, Allaire said that the token would “help provide mechanisms for governance, incentives, economic alignment, and to ultimately move it into a proof-of-stake system over time.” He added that “we hope to have more to share about that in the not too distant future as well.” That aligns with Circle’s plan to evolve Arc into a “distrib...

    NewsCoins
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Ledger Flex. Image: Decrypt/Ledger

    US Attorney's Office Recovers $600K in Crypto Fraud Scheme Targeting Ledger Wallet Owners

    The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut has recovered and forfeited over $600,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a fraud scheme, the latest in a series of successful digital asset seizures by federal law enforcement. According to a Department of Justice press release, the seizure took place after a Ledger hardware wallet user was targeted by a phishing scam in September 2025. U.S. Attorney’s Office Recovers and Forfeits More Than $600K in Cryptocurrency from Fraud Scheme @FBINe...

    NewsLaw and Order
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves

  • What Is Bluesky? The Decentralized Social Media Rival to Elon Musk's X

    Social media platform Bluesky is often touted as an alternative to X (formerly Twitter), and viewed as a competitor to the tech giant. However, its underlying architecture is quite different—where X is a single company with a siloed ecosystem, Bluesky is based on a decentralized infrastructure. Here’s how it works. What is Bluesky? Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform based on the authenticated transport (AT) protocol. The basic underlying idea behind decentralized social media platf...

  • Bitcoin is the leading crypto asset by market cap. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Bitcoin Tops $71,000 as Trump Postpones Iran Power Plant Strike Plans

    Bitcoin surged to highs above $71,000 Monday morning, as U.S. President Donald Trump announced the postponement of planned strikes against Iranian power plants. Bitcoin is currently trading at around $70,000, up 2.5% on the day, after reaching an intraday high of $71,224, per CoinGecko data, though it remains down on the week by some 5%. Per CoinGlass, some $791 million in leveraged positions have been wiped out across the crypto market, $425 million of which were longs. In a post on Truth Soci...

    NewsMarkets
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Viv (Viv Ford), Ray (Aakash Kesavarapu), Trent (Richard Templeton) and Pierre (Nate Wise) in Crypto Castle. Image: Crypto Castle/Decrypt

    'Crypto Castle': YouTube Comedy Takes You Back to When Bitcoin Was Just $250

    “Crypto culture sucks,” says actor and comedian Viv Ford. “You'll go to crypto conferences and it's not what it used to be. It used to be fun degen conferences, and now it's like, men from JPMorgan talking about leverage or whatever. And you're, like, what happened?” With her new YouTube sitcom “The Crypto Castle,” Ford’s aiming to break out of “this insane culture bubble” and reset the clock to the days when crypto was full of promise—and Bitcoin cost just $250 a pop. Based on her real-life ex...

    NewsTechnology
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Steven Spielberg. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Steven Spielberg Is ‘Not For’ AI Replacing Creatives

    Steven Spielberg may have made a film titled “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” but he hasn’t adopted the technology in his filmmaking process, the legendary director told an audience at SXSW 2026. Spielberg, whose filmography includes classics like “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park,” said that he’s “never used AI on any of my films yet.” While Spielberg is in favor of the technology “in many disciplines,” he said, "All the seats are occupied" in his writers' rooms. "There's no...

  • Binance. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    DOJ Investigating if Iran Used Binance to Evade Sanctions: WSJ

    The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Iran's use of Binance to evade sanctions, according to a report published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ reports that officials have contacted people with knowledge of transactions that saw more than $1 billion allegedly flow through the exchange to Iran-backed terror groups, per a previous report in the newspaper. According to the WSJ's reporting, the officials are seeking interviews and gatheri...

    NewsBusiness
    3 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • A hacker. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Moldova's Anticorruption Center Alleges $107M Crypto Scheme to Influence Elections

    Moldova’s National Anticorruption Center has uncovered a scheme to influence the country’s 2025 parliamentary elections that used crypto to channel funds to activists and bribe voters. According to CNA director Alexandr Pinzari, cited in local media reports, the scheme involved the “illegal financing of certain political parties, with the aim of influencing the elections’ results in favor of specific electoral contenders.” The scheme involved the transfer of virtual assets to an intermediary in...

    NewsLaw and Order
    4 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Nasdaq. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    Nasdaq Partners With Kraken for Tokenized Stocks, Launching 2027

    Nasdaq is partnering with Payward, the parent firm of crypto exchange Kraken, to develop tokenized equities that will enable "programmable investor engagement," the exchange announced Monday. Set to launch in the first half of 2027, the initiative aims to "modernize processes" including corporate actions, shareholder engagement, and proxy voting, Nasdaq stated in a press release. Tokenized shares would afford the holder "full legal and regulatory equivalence," with a transfer of the token repres...

    NewsBusiness
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
  • Crime. Image: Shutterstock/Decrypt

    CFO Gets Prison Time After Losing $35 Million of Company Money in Crypto Side Hustle

    A Washington man has been sentenced to two years in prison after diverting $35 million in funds from his former employer to his own DeFi platform—and losing nearly all of it. Nevin Shetty, 42, was found guilty of wire fraud last November for taking and misusing funds from the private software company at which he worked. Shetty, who drafted a “conservative” company investment policy, secretly moved $35 million in company funds to his side business HighTower Treasury, after being told in April 20...

    NewsLaw and Order
    2 min read
    Stephen Graves
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