News & Industry Analysis

Context and analysis on crypto news and regulation.

Beyond the headlines: the regulatory shifts, exchange failures, protocol incidents, and standards updates that actually affect self-custody users — explained without hype.

Square SSP Academy cover: crypto ETFs versus holding coins

Crypto ETFs vs holding the coins: what you actually own

Spot bitcoin and ether ETFs make crypto exposure as easy as buying a share. What an ETF share actually is, how it differs from holding the coins yourself — ownership, control, hours, costs, protections — and which fits what.

4 min
Square SSP Academy cover: exchange proof of reserves

Proof of reserves: what an exchange's audit does and doesn't prove

Many exchanges now publish a proof of reserves. What it genuinely proves about customer funds, the gaps it leaves open — self-reported liabilities, snapshots, borrowed coins — and how to read one critically.

4 min
Square SSP Academy cover: Telestai, Ravencoin, and what a fork inherits

The same bug, two outcomes: Telestai, Ravencoin, and what a fork inherits

Telestai carried Ravencoin's unvalidated nHeight field for its entire existence. It was never exploited — because someone read another chain's incident report and shipped a patch in two days. What forks inherit, and why upstream attention is most of your security.

7 min
Square SSP Academy cover: Ravencoin's consensus bug and the meaning of a confirmation

When a chain rewrites itself: Ravencoin's consensus bug and what a confirmation is really worth

A field in the block header that nobody validated made counterfeit blocks nearly free to mine, and three days of Ravencoin history had to be thrown away. What that says about confirmations — and the honest limits of what any wallet can protect you from.

7 min
A blockchain explorer view showing transaction flows being grouped by entity

What is on-chain analytics?

How firms turn public blockchain data into named entities, why crypto is pseudonymous (not anonymous), and what users can do about it.

6 min