Luke at CoinJar

As the chill of a new crypto winter sets in, the past offers itself as a flawed guide.Last year, during the height of the mania, people started talking about cryptocurrency launching into a new “supercycle” –  basically a paradigm shift wherein the familiar boom-bust cycle would be replaced by one

Story OneThe death spiral we had to haveI wrote my first story about Bitcoin in 2011. In the 11 years since, I’ve spent a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about cryptocurrency. So, trust me when I say that the rapid-fire implosion of the LUNA-UST ecosystem is one

The much prophesied collapse of LUNA–UST has come to pass. Is this the beginning or the end of the crypto suffering?The biggest story in crypto right now is undoubtedly the bank run on UST. Far and away the largest of the algorithmic stablecoins (i.e. those governed by

Story OneBitcoin breaks the magical US$100 markCan you believe it? I barely can and it’s my job to be optimistic about Bitcoin. Remember being at Christmas last year and having to explain to your family that, no, your magic internet money hasn’t exploded in value and made

Story OneASX greenlights the first Australian Bitcoin ETFWhile all the focus is understandably on the prospects of a US Bitcoin ETF, Australia has gone and put itself in the history books by announcing that our first spot Bitcoin ETF will start trading next week. While the approval process has been

After the Merge, Ethereum’s energy usage will drop by 99.95%. Is there any hope for Bitcoin?Of all the things to look forward to in Ethereum’s upgrade to a Proof-of-Stake network (AKA ETH 2.0, AKA The Merge) one of the most important is surely the colossal

Story One More rumours about Apple’s entry into the crypto spaceIn what’s becoming the Groundhog Day of crypto rumours, we’re once again seeing chatter that Apple is going to announce something crypto-related in the near future – and perhaps even this week. The proximate cause for the rumours

Terra is buying billions in Bitcoin and the price is surging. Is it just a Ponzi primed to collapse?In case you hadn’t noticed, the price of Bitcoin has started going up again. As with most of these moves, looking back on the last three months of brutal chop,

Story OneBillionaire Ape Yacht ClubWhile the NFT market itself may be in the midst of a mini-bear, the energy and money pouring into the space shows little sign of slowing down. See, for instance, Yuga Labs, the company that created the ludicrously successful Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs (floor price:

With the crypto market in stasis, here are some ways to use your time in limbo productively.In late 2018, the crypto market died. For literally months the price did nothing except bracket up and down, seemingly without reason, and at one point traded in a US$100 range for

Story OneBiden signs executive order on cryptoJoe Biden has just signed a long-awaited executive order on cryptocurrency. A wide-ranging document, the order discusses the creation of a digital dollar, regulation of crypto exchanges and the role of crypto in money laundering, ransomware and, yes, evading sanctions. However, Treasury Secretary Janet

A horrendous conflict offers us insights into the best and worst parts of cryptocurrency.Let’s not mince words here: what’s happening in Ukraine is absolutely awful. A completely unnecessary war that’s killing thousands, wounding tens of thousands and displacing millions. All at the whim of a paranoid,

The Super Bowl was crypto’s intro to prime time. But is crypto ready for the big stage?I don’t know exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the line advertising ate the Super Bowl. These days it’s less a sporting event than it is a 3-and-a-half hour

While crypto slumps, the NFT market is going from strength to strength. Are we seeing the crypto-NFT decoupling?In case you hadn’t noticed, crypto ain’t been doing so crash hot of late. Prices are down, volumes are down, scams are up and the prevailing atmosphere is that of

From tech legends to furries to the editors of Wikipedia, everyone’s lining up to dunk on crypto. Are we the bad guys?Of all the digital communities one might expect to come out against crypto, the furries were not high on my list. Yet their grievances about web3 and

2021 may have served up its fair share of crap, but for crypto it was the year we finally came of age.Aside from professional epidemiologists and the makers of Squid Game, it’s hard to believe that anyone has had as insane and overwhelming a year as the cryptocurrency

Omicron is here, inflation is spiking and markets all over the world are struggling. Shouldn’t this be crypto’s moment?When the WHO decided to name the latest coronavirus variant of concern, ‘Omicron’ (skipping ‘xi’, the actual next letter in the Greek alphabet), I wonder if they were like,

For the first time, people are saying the unsayable: Ethereum may be beyond saving. Is it actually true?The fact that Ethereum is painfully slow and cripplingly expensive to use is no great secret. Spending more in gas fees than you did on an actual transaction has become a shared

Australia’s largest bank is about to start selling crypto. Did you ever think you’d see the day? Perhaps I underestimate Australia. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a pretty great country, all things considered. But you couldn’t accuse us of brimming with vision, especially when it

The Bitcoin ETF pumped BTC to all-time highs. Is the next stop six figures?It’s worth thinking about everything that’s happened since Bitcoin blasted its way through US$20k in December last year. The 2020 surge was driven by pandemic-fuelled inflation fears, the rise of meme trading and

After eight years the first Bitcoin ETF could almost be here. Will it be everything we’ve been waiting for?You gotta hand it to the Winklevii: they were ahead of the curve. Through their freshly minted Gemini exchange, Tyler and Cameron applied for the very first Bitcoin ETF all

Crypto has been growing for a decade and we’re finally starting to see what it’s all about: building the next internet. By any metric you might choose to measure, the five companies that define technology in 2021 – Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon – are unfathomably colossal. They represent five

In crypto land, rumour, innuendo and straight up hoaxes fill the news cycle – and their only purpose is to take your hard earned coins.Early on Tuesday morning, Australia time, Walmart, a company with an annual revenue of US$550 billion, put out a press release announcing that it would

According to Zuck, the metaverse is coming. And crypto wants to be the gateway drug.A month ago, Mark Zuckerberg emerged from his nutrient-replenishment coffin to conduct a typically dead-eyed tour through the Facebook-enabled dystopia he wishes we were all trapped in. This time around he was explaining how Facebook

Ethereum has flipped Bitcoin in almost every metric that matters. Is market cap next?Last week Coinbase revealed its second quarter earnings, and its first set of earnings as a bona fide NASDAQ-listed company. While there were a lot of impressive figures being reeled off – US$462 billion in transaction