Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.

Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.
Umami Labs CEO Alex O’Donnell grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia before attending Temple University to study literature and economics. That path led him to devote seven years of his life as a financial journalist at Reuters, where he specialized in M&As IPOs.
He said his academic focus created a “pretty natural synthesis” when it came ot financial journalism. However, he said he became “disenchanted” with his industry while he was cooped up at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There really was a three-way alliance between journalists, government officials and technology companies trying to control the flow of information,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Cointelegraph.
He began tinkering with cryptocurrency, which led to his introduction with Umami DAO — and ultimately his creation of Umami Labs.
O’Donnell and his wife, Sanjana, are preparing for a “third, smaller person” to join their family next year. In the meantime, he said he’s also gearing up for another crypto-related venture. The details aren’t fully public yet, but he said he plans to release more information the months ahead.
I’d been a journalist for the better part of a decade primarily covering mergers and acquisitions. I always had an interest in finance and tech. But I started becoming a bit disenchanted with the mainstream media around the time of the pandemic. That was the first time I started becoming a bit more cynical about my own industry’s role in the information economy. So I started paying more attention to issues like privacy, censorship and other things I had not taken as much interest in before.

Umami Labs CEO Alex O’Donnell grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia before attending Temple University to study literature and economics. That path led him to devote seven years of his life as a financial journalist at Reuters, where he specialized in M&As IPOs.
He said his academic focus created a “pretty natural synthesis” when it came ot financial journalism. However, he said he became “disenchanted” with his industry while he was cooped up at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There really was a three-way alliance between journalists, government officials and technology companies trying to control the flow of information,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Cointelegraph.
He began tinkering with cryptocurrency, which led to his introduction with Umami DAO — and ultimately his creation of Umami Labs.
O’Donnell and his wife, Sanjana, are preparing for a “third, smaller person” to join their family next year. In the meantime, he said he’s also gearing up for another crypto-related venture. The details aren’t fully public yet, but he said he plans to release more information the months ahead.
I’d been a journalist for the better part of a decade primarily covering mergers and acquisitions. I always had an interest in finance and tech. But I started becoming a bit disenchanted with the mainstream media around the time of the pandemic. That was the first time I started becoming a bit more cynical about my own industry’s role in the information economy. So I started paying more attention to issues like privacy, censorship and other things I had not taken as much interest in before.

Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.
Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.
Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.
Umami Labs CEO Alex O’Donnell grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia before attending Temple University to study literature and economics. That path led him to devote seven years of his life as a financial journalist at Reuters, where he specialized in M&As IPOs.
He said his academic focus created a “pretty natural synthesis” when it came ot financial journalism. However, he said he became “disenchanted” with his industry while he was cooped up at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There really was a three-way alliance between journalists, government officials and technology companies trying to control the flow of information,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Cointelegraph.
He began tinkering with cryptocurrency, which led to his introduction with Umami DAO — and ultimately his creation of Umami Labs.
O’Donnell and his wife, Sanjana, are preparing for a “third, smaller person” to join their family next year. In the meantime, he said he’s also gearing up for another crypto-related venture. The details aren’t fully public yet, but he said he plans to release more information the months ahead.
I’d been a journalist for the better part of a decade primarily covering mergers and acquisitions. I always had an interest in finance and tech. But I started becoming a bit disenchanted with the mainstream media around the time of the pandemic. That was the first time I started becoming a bit more cynical about my own industry’s role in the information economy. So I started paying more attention to issues like privacy, censorship and other things I had not taken as much interest in before.

The SEC alleged Kraken operated as an unregistered exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agency.
Elizabeth Warren continues pressing for tighter regulation, and Vivek Ramaswamy promises to defend crypto from the government’s overreach if elected.
The Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is following a Basel model for its disclosure requirements.
When memecoins go parabolic, it’s usually a market top signal and a warning that investors’ euphoria has peaked. The market witnessed similar speculative fury in the 2020–2021 bull market when Dogecoin (DOGE) chased after $1, Shiba Inu (SHIB) rallied by tens of thousands of percentage points, and nonfungible token prices hit eye-watering highs of six to seven figures.
DOGE/USDT vs. BTC/USDT weekly chart. Source: TradingViewDespite only being up 13.6% for the year, DOGE’s 33.2% gain over the last month has put the asset on some analysts’ radar.
Take, for example, crypto trader Tony “The Bull,” who pointed out that DOGE price rallied into the one-month parabolic SAR indicator, a move that the trader says was previously followed by a 23,000% rally.
For traders who use technical analysis, the parabolic SAR is generally used to pinpoint “stop and reverse” signals from an asset. In short, it is used to determine the price levels where an asset could stop in its current direction and begin a trend reversal.
Traders have also pointed to DOGE’s Fibonacci levels as a guide to where the price could head in the medium term. Citing the monthly time frame, $0.12 at the 0.618 Fib level has been identified as a medium-term target, whereas the 1.618 Fib level suggests $0.23 as the terminus of the current DOGE swing trade.

According to a report, an agreement to settle Justice Department charges against the company may be settled by the end of the month.
The S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 2.24% last week, its third consecutive weekly gain. In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) managed a minuscule gain of 0.8%, indicating consolidation below $38,000. The prospects for risky assets remain bullish as the U.S. Dollar Index has started to turn down.
Cryptocurrency investors have not parted with their Bitcoin holdings, even after the 125% rally in 2023, indicating their long-term bullish view. Reflexivity co-founder William Clemente posted a chart sourced from Glassnode to X (formerly Twitter), which showed that 70% of Bitcoin in circulation has not been sold or transferred in the past year.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360Investors have also increased exposure to global cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) in 2023, according to a report by the digital asset platform Fineqia, which was seen by Cointelegraph. Fineqia reported that crypto ETP assets under management ballooned by 91% from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2023.
If Bitcoin fails to break above its resistance, will it start a deeper correction? Will altcoins also turn lower, or could they buck the trend? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.
The S&P 500 Index surged above the downtrend line on Nov. 14, signaling an end of the corrective phase.

The weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index suggests that risky assets such as Bitcoin and the S&P 500 Index may remain in favor of the buyers.
The weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index suggests that risky assets such as Bitcoin and the S&P 500 Index may remain in favor of the buyers.
The latest update is the third amendment to ARK and 21Shares’ Bitcoin exchange-traded fund prospectus since the firms first filed in April 2023.
The latest update is the third amendment to ARK and 21Shares’ Bitcoin exchange-traded fund prospectus since the firms first filed in April 2023.
The stablecoin issuer reported the illicit funds had been used by a Southeast Asia-based crime syndicate responsible for a “pig butchering” romance scam.
CoinDesk was owned by the Digital Currency Group, which acquired the media company in 2016 for $500,000. Its new owner is headed by former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley.
Ichigo, based in Tokyo, plans to offer over $20 million worth of digital securities backed by real estate on the Osaka Digital Exchange.
