Senior Crypto Analyst
Ethan Brooks
Ethan Brooks is a U.S.-based Senior Crypto Analyst at ChainWatch with nearly a decade of experience analyzing digital asset markets, blockchain data, and institutional trading activity. He began his career as a quantitative analyst at a leading financial services firm before transitioning full-time into cryptocurrency research in 2017, driven by a passion for blockchain technology and market structure. Ethan holds a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and combines traditional financial analysis with advanced blockchain analytics to deliver institutional-quality market research. His work focuses on Bitcoin market structure, liquidity dynamics, derivatives positioning, exchange flows, and on-chain metrics that provide early signals of changing market conditions. Over the years, Ethan has covered every major phase of the crypto industry, including the 2018 bear market, the DeFi expansion, the 2021 bull market, the market correction following major exchange failures, and the institutional adoption accelerated by spot Bitcoin ETFs. He specializes in interpreting UTXO distribution, realized capitalization, exchange reserves, whale activity, miner behavior, perpetual futures funding rates, and liquidity trends to identify structural shifts before they become visible in price action. In addition to professional market research, Ethan regularly publishes educational articles that simplify blockchain analytics, technical analysis, and risk management for investors of all experience levels. He believes that transparent data, disciplined research, and financial education are essential for navigating the rapidly evolving digital asset market. His reports and educational content have established him as one of ChainWatch's leading voices on Bitcoin, on-chain analytics, and crypto market structure.
Beats
Latest by Ethan · 20 stories
How to spot a fake proof of reserves
Four failure patterns, each with a named example currently live on a major exchange's website.
Bitcoin Tops $85,000 as a Short Squeeze Meets a Stalled CLARITY Act in Washington
Bitcoin briefly climbed above $85,000 on Monday, its highest level since January, as short sellers were forced out of positions. In Washington, the CLARITY Act remains stuck after a failed Senate vote, leaving US crypto rules in the hands of regulators.
The real cost of a crypto card, once you price the stake
A headline cashback rate that requires locking up the issuer's own token is not a reward rate. It is a bet, and last year every one of those bets lost.
How to move crypto off an exchange, step by step
The withdrawal is the moment where irreversible mistakes happen. Five checks, in order, remove nearly all of them.
How to buy bitcoin without overpaying
A first purchase carries four separate costs, and three of them are not shown as fees. Here is what each one is and how to keep it small.
What "not your keys, not your coins" leaves out
The slogan is correct and incomplete. Self-custody removes a counterparty and hands you a job — both halves deserve pricing before you act on it.
Sheriffs Drop Opposition to CLARITY Act as Bitcoin ETFs Rebound Past $80,000
A major U.S. law enforcement group has stepped back from opposing landmark crypto legislation just as Bitcoin ETFs snap back from early-September outflows — two signals that momentum may be building for both Washington and Wall Street.
What a $10,000 trade actually costs on each major exchange
We walked six live order books and priced the same trade on each. The gap between cheapest and dearest is more than six-fold, and none of it is visible on a fee page.
How to check an exchange is really holding your money
Proof of reserves is the only tool a customer has for verifying a balance exists. Most published proofs do not survive a careful read — here is what separates the real ones.
Where should you actually keep your crypto?
Exchange, software wallet or hardware wallet — the decision is not about ideology. It is about how much you hold, how often you touch it, and what you can verify.
DeFi lending TVL tops its prior-cycle high as real-world collateral expands
Total value locked in DeFi lending has climbed past its previous cycle peak, but the headline number hides a structural shift: a growing share of that collateral now lives off-chain, changing the risk in ways TVL was never built to show.
Exchange publishes proof-of-reserves with a zero-knowledge attestation
An exchange has published a proof-of-reserves backed by a zero-knowledge attestation, proving it holds the assets it claims without exposing customer data. But reserves are only half of solvency. The liabilities side is where the real questions live.
Restaking protocol caps new deposits amid concentration concerns
A leading restaking protocol has paused new deposits, a defensive move that spotlights the correlated-slashing and concentration risks lurking beneath one of DeFi's fastest-growing designs.
Decentralized exchanges capture a growing share of spot volume
On-chain venues are steadily taking spot-trading business that centralized exchanges once dominated. The mechanics of automated market makers, plus self-custody and open listing, explain why, and reveal what the shift costs traders.
A liquid staking token briefly depegs, then recovers
A liquid staking token slipped below the value of the assets backing it, then snapped back within hours. The wobble was a liquidity event, not an insolvency, and knowing the difference is the whole story.
The case against chasing yield: where DeFi returns really come from
Every double-digit DeFi yield is a bill for a risk someone decided you should carry. Here is how to trace where the money actually comes from, and how to tell a real return from dilution in disguise.
Self-custody without footguns: a practical security checklist
Most crypto losses are process failures, not exotic hacks. A mechanism-first checklist for hardware wallets, seed backups, hot/cold separation, and the signing mistakes that actually drain wallets.
The MEV problem, explained without the jargon
Every on-chain trade passes through an invisible auction that decides how much value gets extracted from it. Here is how block-ordering power works, and how to defend against it.
How to set up your first hardware wallet, step by step
A calm, thorough walkthrough of setting up your first hardware wallet, from buying direct to testing recovery before you fund it, plus the beginner mistakes that quietly drain wallets.
What restaking is, and the risk nobody likes to mention
Restaking lets the same staked ETH secure many services at once. The capital efficiency is real, and so is the correlated, systemic risk it quietly threads through DeFi.
Fact-checked by Ethan · 5
What happens to your coins if an exchange goes bankrupt
The answer depends on a legal question most customers never ask: is that balance your property, or the company's?
Token approvals: the permission that drains wallets
Most self-custody losses are not break-ins. They are permissions the owner granted, on a page that looked right, and never took back.
Which crypto exchanges can Americans actually use?
State exclusions, separate US platforms with thinner books, and permanent injunctions. The venue you read about is often not the one you can open.
The seed phrase mistakes that cost people everything
Almost nobody loses a recovery phrase to a hacker. They lose it to a house move, a photograph, a fire, or a split so clever nobody could reassemble it.
Hardware wallet or software wallet: how to decide
The threshold is not an amount. It is whether you can read what you are being asked to sign — and that is a question about the device, not about you.