The CoinDesk reporter behind its FTX coverage

Ian Allison

Nick Baker of CoinDesk profiles Ian Allison, the CoinDesk journalist who uncovered the fraud at bitcoin exchange FTX.

Baker writes, “Allison, a Scotsman by birth, might be the nicest and humblest person you’ll meet, too. Before I joined CoinDesk in 2022, a source told me he was a pro I’d enjoy working with. That was an understatement. I’ve worked with him for 16 months and he’s been at CoinDesk for five years. I hope both numbers stretch to infinity.

“It needs to be said, too, that the whole CoinDesk newsroom excelled in covering the collapse of Bankman-Fried and FTX. Other journalists joined Allison in winning three major accolades: the Polk, Loeb and New York Press Club awards.

“As put by CoinDesk Editor-in-Chief Kevin Reynolds, a former senior editor at Bloomberg News, when speaking on behalf of Allison, who couldn’t attend, and other members of the CoinDesk team at the Loeb ceremony in September: ‘I’ve never seen better teamwork or a better overall performance.’

“He continued: ‘I had initially planned to end this speech with ‘the best is yet to come,’ a message of optimism that would have also been a playful homage to the legendary Matt Winkler from whom I learned so much at Bloomberg. However, given the severity of the winter gripping the crypto industry, a downturn partly precipitated by the very reporting and editing that we’re being honored for tonight, I can no longer say with certainty that the best is yet to come for CoinDesk.’

“And then Reynolds got to the heart of what Allison and others did: “‘Our future has been now made uncertain by the very work we’re being honored for right now. And, yet, this makes me prouder, if that’s even possible, of my fellow CoinDeskers because I know without a shred of doubt that had we the gift of prophecy and known our own work might put ourselves out of a job, there’s not a reporter or editor at CoinDesk who would have done a thing differently. Journalism with integrity, regardless of the cost. That’s the CoinDesk way.'”