Cheyenne Ligon

On the news team at CoinDesk, Cheyenne focuses on crypto regulation and crime. Cheyenne is originally from Houston, Texas. She studied political science at Tulane University in Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on business and economics reporting. She has no significant crypto holdings.

Recent

Policy

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FTX Was Down to Last 105 Bitcoins When Bankruptcy Rescue Crew Arrived: John Ray

Ray said Bankman-Fried’s victims “will never be returned to the same economic position they would have been in today absent his colossal fraud.”

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 20, 2024 at 11:13 p.m. UTC

Mar 20, 2024

Ftx groupSam Bankman-FriedJohn Ray IIIBankruptcy

The now-former FTX Arena (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk archives)

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Regulations

FTX Claims Holder Attestor Takes Creditor to Court Over Alleged 'Seller’s Remorse'

The London-based firm says the creditor promised to fork over two FTX accounts, only to back out of the deal after the value of its claims skyrocketed.

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 18, 2024 at 5:45 p.m. UTC

Mar 18, 2024

RegulationsFTXBankruptcy

Tigran Gambaryan, Binance's head of crime compliance, is one of two executives detained in Nigeria. (Shutterstock/Consensus)

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Regulations

Detained Binance Executives to Remain in Nigerian Custody Until Hearing: WSJ

The two men were arrested on Feb. 26 after arriving in Abuja to meet with Nigerian leaders who accused the crypto exchange of crashing the country’s currency, the naira.

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 13, 2024 at 10:34 p.m. UTC

Mar 13, 2024

RegulationsBinanceNigeria

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Regulations

U.S. Attorney’s Office Files Civil Forfeiture Action to Return $2.3M in Crypto Tied to 37 Scam Victims

The $2.3 million includes $400,000 tied to a pig butchering scam that targeted a Massachusetts resident.

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 13, 2024 at 8:33 p.m. UTC

Mar 13, 2024

RegulationsPig ButcheringDOJ

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Regulations

Gemini and Genesis Can Be Sued by SEC Over Defunct Earn Product, Judge Rules

The judge found that the SEC’s complaint “plausibly alleges” that the two crypto firms offered and sold unregistered securities via Gemini Earn.

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 13, 2024 at 7:40 p.m. UTC

Mar 13, 2024

RegulationsSECGenesisGemini

D.C. District courthouse (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

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Regulations

Bitcoin Fog Founder Convicted of Money Laundering

35-year-old Russian-Swiss citizen Roman Sterlingov is the latest person tied to a crypto mixing service to face prison time.

By Cheyenne Ligon

Mar 12, 2024 at 7:20 p.m. UTC

Mar 12, 2024

RegulationsBitcoin FogMixers

Dresden Mayor Bill Hall (Doreen Wang/CoinDesk)

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Regulations

The Bitcoin Mining Debate Is Ignoring the People Most Affected

Snowballing misinformation has painted an inaccurate and incomplete portrait of a complicated industry – and that is having a real impact on policy.

By Cheyenne Ligon Nikhilesh De Doreen Wang

May 23, 2023 at 5:05 p.m. UTC

May 23, 2023

RegulationsBitcoin MiningGreenidge GenerationMiningExclusive

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Regulations

U.S. Prosecutors Drop Extortion Charges Against Early Adviser to Ethereum Network

Lawyers for Steven Nerayoff say that, on the day of his arrest, their client was put in a van by the FBI, given a list of names and told to start turning over evidence on a lo...

By Cheyenne Ligon

May 15, 2023 at 7:14 p.m. UTC

May 15, 2023

RegulationsEtherButerinFBIDOJEthereum

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Ex-Coinbase Product Manager Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Insider Trading

Ishan Wahi was arrested in July 2022 and charged with insider trading for providing his brother with insider information about upcoming crypto listings at Coinbase.

By Cheyenne Ligon

May 9, 2023 at 4:06 p.m. UTC

May 9, 2023

RegulationsCoinbaseInsider Trading

Voyager Digital founder Stephen Ehrlich (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Regulations

Voyager Digital Plans to Liquidate Assets, Wind Down After Sale Dreams Crushed

Voyager’s creditors will recover an estimated 36% of their assets – a far smaller slice of the pie than they would have received if the platform’s sale to FTX or Binance US we...

By Cheyenne Ligon

May 5, 2023 at 9:36 p.m. UTC

May 5, 2023

RegulationsVoyagerVoyager DigitalBankruptcy