Aoyon Ashraf

Aoyon Ashraf is CoinDesk's Global Head of News and is responsible for all of the editorial content and strategies. He spent almost a decade at Bloomberg covering equities, commodities and tech. Prior to that, he spent several years on the sellside, financing small-cap companies. Aoyon graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering. He holds ETH, BTC, and SOL that are above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000. He also holds LINK, ATOM and some other altcoins that are below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Aoyon Ashraf

Latest from Aoyon Ashraf


Finance

Pokémon cards are becoming multibillion dollar market. Crypto wants to fix how they trade

Collectors are spending millions on trading cards, while blockchain startups are turning physical Pokémon cards into digital assets. The harder task is creating enough liquidity to compete with established marketplaces.

Pokemon cards are getting tokenized. (Getty Images)

Finance

Grayscale quietly drops Cardano, Polkadot and Hedera ETF plans

The asset manager said it no longer intends to proceed with the offerings. None became effective, and no securities were issued or sold.

(Grayscale)

Finance

Trump Media pulls back from crypto, scraps Crypto.com's CRO token treasury deal

The Truth Social parent company is refocusing on media and its pending merger with a fusion energy firm, as the digital asset treasury boom has lost its steam.

President Donald Trump and Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek (Crypto.com)

Policy

U.S. widens Iran crypto crackdown with sanctions on two exchanges

The Treasury's OFAC targeted Shelbit and Aban Tether as Washington continues its effort to cut Tehran's access to crypto and foreign currency.

Iranian flag (Akbar Nemati/Unsplash)

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Finance

BitMEX sale collapsed as buyers balked at founder ownership and shrinking business

Potential buyers, including Exodus, passed on BitMEX amid concerns over founder ownership and its shrinking business, according to a source familiar.

(Shutterstock)

Policy

Here are the possible outcomes for Clarity right now

The Senate has not yet indicated if it will advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and with its summer recess looming, here are the possible outcomes.

U.S. Capitol Building (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Markets

Why bitcoin’s ‘500-day rule’ faces its biggest test yet

The so-called ‘500-day rule’ says buying BTC roughly 500 days before a bitcoin halving and selling it about 500 days after would have produced profits in prior cycles.

A bus carries a Bitcoin advert.

Markets

Tokenized stock trading surged 288% in July, but one QQQ token drove most of it

Without that QQQ token, QQQB, July volume for tokenized equities would be roughly $2.03 billion, about 30% below June’s total.

A pair of hands resting on a keyboard with an iPad showing graphs and price quotes. (Kanchanara/Unsplash)

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Policy

SEC to review Nasdaq bitcoin options approval after CME challenge

CME argues that because bitcoin is a commodity, options tied to its value fall under CFTC jurisdiction, not the SEC's authority.

(Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Policy

CME's Duffy warns an overlooked tax risk looms over U.S. perpetual futures

CME CEO Terry Duffy said a court battle over whether perpetual futures are swaps or futures could eventually affect how the IRS taxes the contracts. Independent legal experts say the issue remains unresolved.

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy. (Getty Images)