I am an independent reporter, focused on cryptocurrencies and financial fraud.
My stories have appeared in Artnet News, Business Insider, The Block, Bitcoin Magazine, Coindesk, Forbes, Modern Consensus, and Decrypt.
I’m a nocoiner, meaning I don’t hold any crypto assets. A few years ago, I had some bitcoin but to borrow from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, “Part of my happiness is not to have worries, so I sold it all and just got rid of it.”
I am available for freelance work, and you can reach me by email here. I’m also active on Twitter and Reddit. I generally agree to interviews. (I was recently featured in this BBC radio show talking about failed Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX.)
Among the hundreds of stories I’ve written on crypto, I’ve picked a few of my favorites and posted them here. (If you are looking for my Quadriga timeline, it’s here.) I also have a crypto news blog.
If you like my work, please consider supporting my writing by subscribing to my Patreon account for as little as $5 a month.
Recent blog posts follow:
August 2021
Poloniex gets busted by SEC for $10M, and Circle pays — again
Fluffy Pony and the irresistible cookie jar
July 2021
News: EU to make BTC traceable, Circle’s stab at transparency, DoJ probes Tether for bank fraud
Podcast: ‘Target Letter, Tether’ (Amy Castor and David Gerard)
The DoJ’s criminal probe into Tether — What we know
News: Regulators zero in on stablecoins, El Salvador’s colón-dollar, Tether printer remains paused
Binance: Italy, Lithuania, Hong Kong, all issue warnings; Brazil director quits
Binance: Fiat off-ramps keep closing, reports of frozen funds, what happened to Catherine Coley?
What’s backing Circle’s 25B USDC? Why may never know
Reggie Fowler, man at the center of Tether’s missing funds, ready for trial
RSA Conference goes full blockchain, for a moment
Binance: A crypto exchange running out of places to hide
Notes on NFTs, the high-art trade, and money laundering
June 2021
Michael Peterson, El Salvador, and Bitcoin Beach
El Salvador’s bitcoin plan: take your USD and turn them into worthless tethers
May 2021
Rehost: A day in the life of Stuart Hoegner, General Counsel for Tether
Tether’s first breakdown of reserves consists of two silly pie charts
April 2021
News: Tether surpasses 50B, Coinbase lists USDT, reported $2B crypto scam in Turkey
Coinbase lists tether, the world’s dodgiest stablecoin
Signal adopts MobileCoin, a crypto project linked to its own creator Moxie Marlinspike
News: Coinbase set to go public, Tether releases meaningless attestation, are NFT sales slipping?
March 2021
BitClout’s social media experiment is one bad idea on top of another
WTF is an NFT? Here’s a rundown of the basics
Metakovan, the mystery Beeple art buyer, and his NFT/DeFi scheme
NYAG to crypto companies: ‘Play by the rules or we will shut you down’
February 2021
News: NY gives Tether the boot, Tether leaks, Coinbase financials, MoneyGram dumps Ripple
NYAG/Tether, Bitfinex settlement reveals commingling of funds, years of shenanigans
Tether, Bitfinex to pay $18.5M to NYAG, cease trading in NY
Proof of work—the reason behind Bitcoin’s horrendous energy consumption
Nouriel Roubini: ‘Tether is a criminal enterprise,’ SEC should probe Elon Musk’s bitcoin tweets
Tesla spent $1.5B in clean car credits on bitcoin, the filthiest asset imaginable
January 2021
News: Tether surpasses $26B, Elon Musk pumps BTC, Gregory Pepin’s magic trick
Ripple shoots back at SEC claims, takes the Kik route
Larry Cermak and Bennett Tomlin debate Tether’s solvency—transcript with notes
Tether’s Paolo Ardoino and Stuart Hoegner do a podcast—transcript and my comments
Nocoiner predictions: 2021 will be a year of comedy gold
December 2020
Judge gives Reggie Fowler 45 days to find new defense counsel
Reggie Fowler owes lawyers $600,000
November 2020
Reggie Fowler, man linked to missing Bitfinex funds, hoodwinks his own defense team
Are pixie fairies behind Bitcoin’s latest bubble?
Confirmed: Reggie Fowler can’t pay his lawyers
Reginald Fowler’s lawyers want to quit. Did he neglect to pay them?
What’s in Quadriga’s 7th Report of the Trustee? (Hint: mostly admin stuff)
News: Virgil Griffith wants charges tossed, MicroStrategy bets big on BTC, Ledger hacked
October 2020
News: Modern Consensus co-founder arrested, PayPal embraces bitcoin, Peter Schiff in the hot seat
September 2020
Quadriga’s trustee hires blockchain analytics firm
April 2020
Judge to EY: You’re free to hand over Quadriga user data to tax collector
March 2020
Bankruptcy trustee to hand over QuadrigaCX user data to Canada’s tax collector
Judge reschedules Reggie Fowler’s trial for next year
Coronavirus: Will crypto conferences survive? What about crypto media?
February 2020
We’re in Vancouver for a Quadriga documentary
Reggie Fowler allegedly funded sports league with ill-gotten gains
Personal update: I left my job at Modern Consensus
Documents point to QuadrigaCX using payment processor Crypto Capital
News: Crypto Mom wants to give criminals a head start, IOTA’s meltdown, Lubin’s organism divides
January 2020
The high cost of fulfilling law enforcement requests: Quadriga’s 5th trustee report
Law firm for Quadriga creditors puts pressure on RCMP to dig up Cotten
Personal update: My new gig at Modern Consensus
News: CBDCs are hot, Vodafone pulls out of Libra, more WB21 stuff, Quadriga update
December 2019
Sweet home Alabama — Virgil Griffith free on $1M bail to live with parents
November 2019
DOJ arrests Ethereum Foundation coder for teaching North Korea how to launder money, evade sanctions
July 2019
News: Bitmarket CEO turns up dead, Bitfinex to NYAG: ‘Yeah but no but,’ more weirdness from Tron
News: Former Wex CEO arrested, CFTC probes BitMEX, Facebook’s Libra grilled in Washington
News: NYAG calls Bitfinex out, Bitfunder founder off to jail, Roubini pissed at Bitmex
June 2019
I wrote “Bitcoin ATMs — Why Vancouver doesn’t want them”
CLAM flash crash forces Poloniex to socialize $14 million worth of BTC in losses—what happened
The HODLcast: “QuadrigaCX with Amy Castor and David Gerard”
May 2019
“QuadrigaCX traders lost money on Cryptopia on the same day in January” —my first story for Decrypt
Turns out, you can make money on horse manure, and tethers are worth just that
QuadrigaCX Trustee’s Preliminary Report: ‘Yup, looks like your money’s all gone’
NY Supreme Court Judge: Bitfinex may not touch Tether’s reserves for 90 days
Reginald Fowler, man tied to missing Bitfinex funds, out on $5 million bail
Binance hacked to the tune of $41 million, but no worries, funds are SAFU
Bitfinex to NYAG: You have no authority! We did nothing wrong!
The HODLcast: A deep dive into Bitfinex with Amy Castor
NYAG: Bitfinex needs to submit docs and stop dipping into Tether’s reserves
News: More Bitfinex drama, Crypto Capital, a dodgy football businessman and a relationship coach
US Government wants man at center of massive “cryptocurrency scheme” held without bail
April 2019
New York Attorney General: Bitfinex is hiding $850 million in losses
TalkGold — the ponzi forum where Quadriga’s Patryn and Cotten first met
News: Craig Wright files more libel suits, exchanges respond by delisting BSV, and Arwen launches
Judge extends Quadriga’s creditor protection, and EY squabbles with third-party payment processor
Quadriga: Patryn, Cotten, and Midas Gold—a Liberty Reserve exchanger
I’m in a podcast—“Why Won’t Amy Castor Just Shut Up About QuadrigaCX!”
March 2019
News: WB21 rebrands, Patryn is without a doubt Dhanani, and Quadriga creditors now have a committee
CipherBlade CSO and founder Richard Sanders responds
Blockchain analytics firm CipherBlade steps in to launder ShapeShift’s image
Quadriga’s representative withdraws from CCAA hearings over potential conflict of interest
On and (literally) off the road to Quadriga—our perilous drive to Halifax
Diving into WB21, the company holding $9 million of Quadriga money
February 2019
‘Platform error’ blamed for BTC being sent to Quadriga’s dead CEO’s cold wallet
Two law firms appointed to represent QuadrigaCX creditors
News: Quadriga, Quadriga, Quadriga
How the hell did we get here? A timeline of Quadriga events
News: Quadriga has gone bust, Kik is fighting back, and tether rose to fourth place, briefly
Social media startup Kik is kicking back—at the SEC
January 2019
News: ETC hacker returns money, Constantinople can wait, and a new twist in the QuadrigaCX saga
The curious case of Tether: a complete timeline of events
After impressive claims, image rights platform KodakOne still has a lot to explain
Amy Castor 