Aidan Ryan
The Information
New York, United States
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Past articles by Aidan:
VCs Step in as Silvergate Woes Send Crypto Startups Scrambling
Is crypto about to be unbankable?Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate is teetering, saying last week it could be left “less than well capitalized” after a run on deposits and shutting off its Silvergate Exchange Network payments system for crypto companies and big traders. The bank had been suffering ... → Read More
How Crypto’s Costly Payments Problems Surfaced at Gemini
Crypto was supposed to revolutionize payments. But crypto firms are still getting tripped up with old-school banking problems. Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, offers a case study in how quickly things can go wrong. The crypto exchange saw a surge in fraud ... → Read More
Policy Is a Priority for Coinbase; Paradigm’s Exits
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has one big priority this year: Policy.As I wrote last week, regulators are increasingly cracking down on crypto in the wake of the FTX blowup. Recently, that has included actions to rein in stablecoins and staking. In a letter to shareholders on Tuesday, Coinbase ... → Read More
Exits Mount at Crypto Venture Firm Paradigm
Paradigm, the crypto-focused venture firm founded by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia partner Matt Huang, is shrinking quickly. At least eight employees, including two investment partners and four engineers, have left the firm since the start of October, according to The ... → Read More
Gemini’s Blind Spot; What’s on Coinbase’s Chopping Block
The Gemini-Genesis battle has reached a boiling point.Cameron Winklevoss, the Gemini co-founder and president, published an open letter Monday that called for the Digital Currency Board to remove CEO Barry Silbert from his post and had a scathing assessment of the financial health of Genesis, ... → Read More
Binance and Coinbase CEOs Go on the Defensive
Top executives at Binance and Coinbase have been busy penning messages to reassure their employees and customers that they’re no FTX.Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told his staff that he expects the “next several months to be bumpy” but Binance will get through it and be “stronger for having been ... → Read More
SBF’s Criminal Charges Take the Heat Off the Crypto Industry
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has just been charged with a raft of crimes. But they’re not really crypto crimes—and that’s a big relief for the broader crypto industry. The criminal charges, laid out in an indictment filed by federal prosecutors in New York, center on decidedly old-school ... → Read More
Robinhood’s Crypto Trading Surges After FTX Meltdown—Boding Well for Coinbase
Signs are emerging that FTX’s dramatic collapse last month has benefited other major crypto trading platforms—at least in the short term.One example is stock and crypto trading app Robinhood, which reported November trading metrics on Wednesday. Most of the data it reported were similar to its ... → Read More
Crypto and AI-Focused Sequoia Partner Is Leaving the Firm
Sequoia Capital partner Divya Gupta is leaving the firm just weeks after the storied venture capital firm apologized to limited partners about its $214 million investment in the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. Gupta worked on seed- and early-stage investments in cryptocurrency and artificial ... → Read More
Former FTX Executive Brett Harrison in Talks With Investors for New Crypto Startup
Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX’s U.S. arm, is trying to raise money for a new crypto startup focused on building crypto trading software for big investors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Harrison has told at least one venture capital firm he is aiming ... → Read More
What’s Next for Aptos and Mysten; CeFi Beats DeFi in Filling FTX Hole
It’s hard to write about much in crypto right now without mentioning FTX. In just three years, the exchange spread influence—and money—far and wide. And its sudden implosion has created a massive vacuum.I reported on Tuesday about how FTX Ventures’ role as a significant player in crypto ... → Read More
Bankruptcies Boost Analytics Startups—For Now; Sequoia’s Black Eye
The FTX collapse has left many customers in limbo, with billions of dollars stuck on the bankrupt exchange. And contagion has been spreading to firms including BlockFi and Genesis, as I mapped out last week.But high-profile implosions have been good for business in one corner of the crypto ... → Read More
What the FTX Crash Means for VCs and Startups
The FTX saga continues to move at a blistering pace, with FTX, FTX US and Alameda Research all filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Friday and Sam Bankman-Fried, its co-founder, resigning as CEO. We're starting to see the contagion of the FTX collapse spread to crypto lending companies ... → Read More
The (Swift) Rise and Fall of the FTX Empire
It’s often casually thrown around that crypto moves faster than other industries. That has never been more evident than it was over the past few days.In case you’ve been living under a rock, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto empire has fallen. On Tuesday, the world’s largest crypto exchange, ... → Read More
Robinhood’s Crypto Doldrums; NFT Fyre Festival
Robinhood’s latest financial results show that the crypto winter isn’t thawing anytime soon, at least when it comes to trading.The stock and crypto trading app generated $361 million in revenue in the third quarter, essentially flat versus the same period last year. Crypto trading revenue was ... → Read More
The People With Power at Coinbase as It Navigates Crypto Meltdown
Crypto exchange Coinbase has seen a dramatic change of fortunes with crypto’s downturn. Now Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong is trying to rein in costs while pushing ahead on launching products and expanding into new markets. Emilie Choi, Coinbase’s president and chief operating ... → Read More
Is AI Stealing Web3’s Thunder?; The Most Promising Crypto Startups
“In Silicon Valley, crypto and the metaverse are out. Generative AI is in,” the New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose proclaimed last week, joining other industry watchers in weighing in on what’s top of mind for those who control the Silicon Valley war chests. But are crypto ... → Read More
Investors Wary of Board Seats at Crypto Startups Due to Legal Risks
As regulators take aim at cryptocurrency tokens, prominent crypto investors have taken unusual steps to insulate themselves: not seeking board seats at startups in hopes of avoiding liability. Investors’ lawyers are warning that members of token-issuing startup boards could potentially face big ... → Read More
FalconX Deal a Bright Spot in Bleak Market for Crypto
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for crypto companies as token prices have dropped, bellwethers such as Coinbase have laid off staff, and the crash in two cryptocurrencies—terraUSD and luna—has trashed confidence in digital assets. But some startups have been able to lock in new funding rounds ... → Read More
Crypto Recruiters Feel the Chill; Breaking Down the Digital Asset Bill
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been covering the downturn in crypto prices and how that’s affecting crypto companies. For some, it’s triggered layoffs and hiring freezes.But as my story on Tuesday this week shows, there’s also an effect on the broader ecosystem of firms that have helped ... → Read More