Greg Ahlstrand

Greg Ahlstrand

Originally from California, I've been Asia-based since 1999, headquartered in Hong Kong and Jakarta and traveling throughout the Asean countries, Japan, Korea, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan for stories. Made Australia a couple of times, too. I started my journalism career as a news assistant at the Fresno Bee in Central California while studying the subject in school after the Navy. I went from launching and recovering helicopters on flight decks at sea to recovering papers fresh off the printer in the Bee's basement and launching them onto the editors' desks, whose editors had long since gone home for the night. Eventually, they let me stop delivering the paper and start writing stuff in it. My first beat was night cops: liquor store robberies, gang shootings, fatal car crashes (almost always alcohol related). It was an education. I am, as implied above, a U.S. Navy veteran. I served in seagoing helicopter squadrons as an aviation anti-submarine warfare technician throughout the Asia Pacific region and the Indian Ocean. I have a significant number of sailor stories to tell. I have no significant crypto holdings. Among my hobbies are welding, building stuff, home remodelling, (or knocking a house down and starting from scratch if it's too far gone to fix), riding horses and rebuilding old tractors. So far I've done a Ford 8N and a Ford 9N. It's slow going, because I live in Hong Kong and the tractors are in California, so I only get to work on them once or twice a year, for a week or two at a time - and that was before covid. I love my Lab, Cooper, whom my neighbors asked me to adopt two years ago when they moved back to Shanghai from Hong Kong. Cooper and I actually planned the whole thing -- we've known each other almost his whole life -- but his first parents are unaware of the conspiracy; and they send him Christmas presents every year.

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BlockFi CEO Zac Prince at Consensus 2019 in New York (CoinDesk)
Bankrupt Crypto Lender BlockFi Sues Bankman-Fried for Robinhood Shares, FT Reports
Bankman-Fried, through a holding company, pledged his stake in Robinhood as collateral for a loan.
BlockFi CEO Zac Prince at Consensus 2019 in New York (CoinDesk)
(CoinDesk)
Crypto Bank Silvergate Says Its BlockFi Digital-Asset Deposit Exposure Totals Less Than $20M
The bank's shares closed down 11% to $25.90 on Monday, after BlockFi bankruptcy filing.
(CoinDesk)
(Eliza Gkritsi/CoinDesk)
New York Imposes 2-Year Moratorium on New Proof-of-Work Mining After Gov. Hochul Signs Bill
The new law sets a two-year moratorium on new and renewed air permits for fossil fuel power plants used for energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency mining.
(Eliza Gkritsi/CoinDesk)
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
FTX Must Pay Expenses Incurred by Bahamas Regulator for Holding the Exchange's Digital Assets
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas last week ordered the contents of FTX's crypto wallets to be transferred to government-controlled wallets.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
Ankara, Turkey (Ekrem Osmanoglu/Unsplash)
Founder of Crypto Exchange Thodex to Be Extradited to Turkey From Albania: Report
Faruk Fatih Özer disappeared in 2021, taking funds from 400,000 users.
Ankara, Turkey (Ekrem Osmanoglu/Unsplash)
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
FTX Wins Bid to Buy Crypto Lender Voyager Digital's Assets Out of Bankruptcy
FTX US's bid is valued at approximately $1.4 billion, according to a Voyager press release late Monday Eastern time.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Busan City, South Korea (Getty Images)
Crypto Exchange Binance to Help S. Korean City of Busan Develop Its Blockchain Industry
Binance will provide services and education to support the city's blockchain development.
Busan City, South Korea (Getty Images)
Cross-chain messaging protocol Nomad said it is investigating a reported hack. (Shutterstock)
Crypto Bridge Nomad Hacked, $45M Stolen So Far: Report
The cross-chain messaging protocol said it's aware of the situation and is investigating.
Cross-chain messaging protocol Nomad said it is investigating a reported hack. (Shutterstock)
Cathie Wood (Marco Bello/Getty Images)
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Offloads Over 1.4M Coinbase Shares as COIN Price Falls
Coinbase shares have taken a big hit following disappointing results and a report the exchange is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cathie Wood (Marco Bello/Getty Images)
Celsius Network founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky (CoinDesk)
Celsius Network Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
The crypto lender said it has $167 million in cash on hand and will continue to freeze customer withdrawals.
Celsius Network founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky (CoinDesk)