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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The Celsius both at Bitcoin Miami 2022 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
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Nexo is looking at buying Vauld. (Ozgur Coskun/Shutterstock)
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Nexo is looking at buying Vauld. (Ozgur Coskun/Shutterstock)
Bitcoin plunges below $20K (OGNYAN CHOBANOV/Getty Images)
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Bitcoin plunges below $20K (OGNYAN CHOBANOV/Getty Images)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (left) and Mayor Eric Adams (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul (left) and Mayor Eric Adams (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami on April 7. (Marco Bello/Getty Images)
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Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami on April 7. (Marco Bello/Getty Images)
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Both Ryan, a Democrat, and Vance, a Republican, support cryptocurrencies.
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Greenidge mining center (Caleb Parker)
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Greenidge mining center (Caleb Parker)
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Blockchain.com founder and CEO Peter Smith (Blockchain.com)
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Blockchain.com founder and CEO Peter Smith (Blockchain.com)