Iliana has been covering the crypto and fintech industry since the NFT boom in 2021. Throughout her career, Iliana reported on key crypto events, including Ethereum’s Merge, the FTX scandal, and regulatory developments. Before joining Defi Rate in 2026, she wrote for a number of publications in the crypto space, with bylines at CryptoNews, Techopedia, and Capital.com.
Iliana holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism from City St. George’s, University of London, and a Master’s in Communication from Gothenburg University.
When she’s not working, Iliana enjoys taking photos and experimenting with crochet projects, although she does tend to spend a lot of her free time on crypto Twitter looking for scoops.
Days after the CLARITY Act failed a Senate cloture vote, the SEC issued an exemption letting qualifying venues trade tokenized stocks on-chain without registering.
Changpeng Zhao predicted IPOs will move on-chain, but experts say the shift is already underway and that real on-chain issuance, not wrapped products, will carry it.
The SEC proposed modernizing decades-old transfer-agent rules so a blockchain can serve as the official record of securities ownership, a step experts see for tokenized assets.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig says the agency will write its own crypto market rules if the CLARITY Act stalls, but legal experts warn such rules would be less durable than law.
MEXC and Blockworks research finds stock futures trading surging in Asia as crypto traders use exchanges to reach gold and equities. MEXC CEO Vugar Usi explains why.
Morph's Wesley Rios, a veteran of Citi, JPMorgan and Mastercard, explains why banks keep building their own blockchain networks when interoperability remains unsolved.
BitMEX, which pioneered crypto perpetual swaps, will shut down in September as perps hit record volume. Experts say compliance costs are squeezing mid-tier exchanges.
Bitcoin has lost much of its value this year as spot ETFs post record outflows and Strategy authorizes selling part of its holdings, which analysts call a test of conviction.
Ethics provisions, including Trump's own crypto holdings, may be the Clarity Act's biggest obstacle to sixty Senate votes, and industry leaders are split on the bill.
Experts say the growing interest from institutional players and fintech platforms is a sign that prediction markets are becoming a legitimate financial product category, not just a niche curiosity.
Commodity trading veteran John Lothian tells DeFi Rate the CFTC misclassified crypto perpetual futures, as CME argues in its lawsuit, and that the fix must come from Congress.
Witnesses from Fidelity, Coinbase, Coin Center and NYU told House Ways and Means that crypto tax rules need fixing, but members split over seven Republican bills.
Cycles raised $6.4 million to build privacy-preserving clearing infrastructure for crypto markets, built on the case that stablecoins alone can’t solve the industry’s liquidity problem.
The CFTC’s approval of Bitcoin perps on Kalshi opens US traders to crypto’s dominant instrument. Former agency counsel Peter Sanchez Guarda says the legal theory behind it has never been tested.
After the CFTC approved the first US-listed perpetual futures, Hyperliquid-linked assets rallied as NYSE's parent met with the exchange and a Grayscale ETF neared launch.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act in a bipartisan vote, sending the bill that would define how crypto assets are regulated to the full Senate.
The Clarity Act is regaining momentum with a July 4 target, though a stablecoin yield compromise still faces pushback from banking groups worried about deposits.
Polymarket and Kalshi are adding perpetual-style mechanics that make event contracts trade more like crypto derivatives, though experts say the two remain distinct.
