Olga Kharif
Washington Post
Portland, OR, United States
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Past articles by Olga:
Why Crypto and Wall Street Are Longing For Spot Bitcoin ETFs
Investors who want to bet on Bitcoin may soon have more options to choose from if US regulators soften their opposition to exchange-traded funds tied directly to Bitcoin holdings. Major financial firms including BlackRock, Fidelity and Invesco have submitted applications to sell US “spot” Bitcoin ETFs that would be physically backed by actual Bitcoin. In the past, the US Securities and Exchange… → Read More
How a Series of Crypto Meltdowns Is Reshaping the Industry
The history of cryptocurrencies has rarely been dull, but the latest meltdown delivered a series of shocks that shook the foundations of digital assets. A cascade of blowups, including the collapse of a so-called stablecoin in May and the epic unravelling of the FTX crypto exchange in November, left a wave of bankruptcies. The events eroded the trust of more mainstream investors who were eager… → Read More
FTX Executive Ryan Salame Tipped Off Bahamian Regulators to Possible Fraud
Several days before FTX collapsed into bankruptcy, one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s most senior executives was tipping off Bahamian authorities to possible misuse of funds at the exchange. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO at FTX Digital Markets, told island regulators on Nov. 9 that client assets were transferred to Alameda Research to “cover financial losses” at the trading firm, court filings show. → Read More
Bitcoin Is Red Hot. Can It Ever Be Green?
Is crypto trashing the planet? Digital assets such as Bitcoin depend on so-called miners whose giant server farms guzzle electricity day and night to run the networks that support them. The industry’s carbon footprint has grown so fast that it’s alarming climate campaigners, governments and other big energy users. China banned crypto mining in 2021, and Elon Musk stopped accepting Bitcoin as… → Read More
Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX Empire Faces US Probe Into Client Funds, Lending
US regulators are investigating whether beleaguered crypto-exchange FTX.com mishandled customer funds, and they’re looking into the firm’s relationships with other parts of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire. The inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission relate to the liquidity crisis that has pushed FTX to the brink, according to three… → Read More
The Ethereum Merge Ups the Stakes—and Reshapes the Crypto Universe
Ether will pay interest and more closely resemble normal financial instruments. → Read More
What Are Stablecoins? Why Did TerraUSD Go So Wobbly?
If you put a dollar bill under your mattress, you know you’ll get a dollar bill back when you go looking for it. And that paper currency will still be worth $1. A branch of cryptocurrencies called stablecoins aims to replicate that kind of dependability in totally new ways. Some issuers say they keep stores of assets as collateral to guarantee the value of their stablecoins. Other versions… → Read More
What’s Crypto Lending, and Why Did Investors Get Burned?
Savers frustrated with the paltry yields offered by banks in recent years appeared to have found a solution: so-called crypto lending accounts that can pay interest rates of 18% or even more. Millions piled into these products, introducing a whole new cohort of investors to cryptocurrencies. Some came to regret their move after crypto lending firms Celsius Network, Babel Finance and Vauld… → Read More
Inside Crypto’s Plan to Retool the Internet
Crypto enthusiasts dream not only of revolutionizing money. They want to reinvent the World Wide Web, too. Their vision, which goes by the name Web3, is of a decentralized environment built on crypto technology in which swarms of independent collaborators take back control of the web from giant tech companies. It’s a threat that those tech firms -- including Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc.… → Read More
What’s Crypto Lending, and What Happened With Celsius?
Savers frustrated with the paltry yields offered by banks in recent years appeared to have found a solution: so-called crypto lending accounts that can pay interest rates of 18% or even more. Millions piled into these products offered by upstart firms including Celsius Network, introducing a whole new cohort of investors to cryptocurrencies. Now it appears some of those eye-popping returns may… → Read More
Ethereum Mining Is Going Away, and Miners Are Not Happy
The shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake will cut power consumption sharply—and leave some expensive technology searching for new uses. → Read More
Staking, Bridges, WAGMI and More: a Crypto Glossary
Just when you thought you understood the world of crypto, some brain-twisting innovation comes along and you’re lost again. It doesn’t help that a tight-knit community of crypto evangelists throws around buzzwords and slang that are like a foreign language to the uninitiated. Bloomberg has unpacked some of those concepts here. → Read More
Why Yellen, Powell Cast a Wary Eye on Stablecoins
It may seem paradoxical, but in the entirety of the wild and woolly world of cryptocurrencies, what some of the top financial regulators are most worried about is the flavor of digital money designed to be the safest. Even the name, stablecoin, exudes, well, stability. But stablecoins in general and the giant among them, Tether, in particular have drawn increasing scrutiny amid worries that they… → Read More
What Are Stablecoins? Why Did TerraUSD Go So Wobbly?
It may seem paradoxical, but in the entirety of the wild and woolly world of cryptocurrencies, what some of the top financial regulators are most worried about is the flavor of digital money designed to be the safest. Even the name, stablecoin, exudes, well, stability. But stablecoins in general and the giant among them, Tether, in particular have drawn increasing scrutiny amid worries that they… → Read More
Understanding Crypto Bridges and $1 Billion in Thefts
There’s a reason bridges are more important than an average stretch of road -- and why holes in them are more dangerous. As the cryptocurrency world has grown more complex, more and more transactions have come to rely on so-called crypto bridges that enable transactions involving a wide range of tokens. A roughly $600 million hack of the Ronin bridge in March brought the total stolen from… → Read More
Ukraine Buys Military Gear With Donated Cryptocurrencies
Ukraine has already spent $15 million of the donations it received in cryptocurrencies on military supplies, including bulletproof vests that were delivered Friday, according to Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. → Read More
Mark Zuckerberg’s Stablecoin Ambitions Unravel With Diem Sale Talks
The controversial cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg once defended in front of Congress is unraveling after regulatory pressure. → Read More
Inside Crypto’s Plan to Retool the Internet
Crypto enthusiasts don’t only dream of revolutionizing the world of money. They want to reinvent the World Wide Web. That vision, which goes by the name of “Web3,” is of a decentralized environment built on crypto technology in which swarms of collaborators take back control of the web from giant tech companies. It’s a threat that those tech firms -- including Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc.… → Read More
Why GameFi Is Crypto’s Hot New Thing (and What Is It?)
One of the hottest things in the cryptocurrency world right now is GameFi. Its name reflects the combination of the old-fashioned thrill of winning prizes with new crypto developments in what’s known as DeFi. GameFi players can trade, lend or rent out their winnings or or even borrow against them. You can’t do that with the stuffed kitty you scored at the county fair. As its popularity soars,… → Read More
What You Need to Know About Web3, Crypto’s Attempt to Reinvent the Internet
Enthusiasts say tokens can change computing. Is this the real deal or vaporware? → Read More