Stephen Alpher

Stephen is CoinDesk's managing editor for Markets. He previously served as managing editor at Seeking Alpha. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., Stephen went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, majoring in finance. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Stephen Alpher

Latest from Stephen Alpher


Markets

XRP holders can now earn yield without selling their tokens

Flare's earnXRP is a simple way to put tokens to work while staying fully exposed to XRP's price action.

Digitally altered photo of a dollar bill (Ryan Quintal/Unsplash, Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

Polkadot's DOT slips 4.5% as token underperforms wider crypto markets

DOT is facing pressure as it tries to retake the $1.76 support/resistance level.

"Polkadot Climbs 0.79% to $7.66, Testing Key Resistance Amid Muted Institutional Interest"

Markets

BNB slips toward $850 as market pullback weighs on token

The decline comes as bitcoin sank back to $87,000 in Tuesday trade.

"BNB Falls 1.7% to $849 Amid Market Cap Pressure, XRP Gains Ground"

Finance

Amplify ETFs targeting stablecoin and tokenization sectors open for trade

The two funds — STBQ and TKNQ — each come with a 69 basis point expense ratio.

Stock market price charts (Anne Nygård/Unsplash)

Advertisement

Markets

Bitcoin slips below $88,000 as traders brace for $28.5 billion Deribit options expiry

Crypto continues to lose ground ahead of this week's record options expiration, while defensive positioning and thinning liquidity suggest caution into 2026.

The bitcoin market may see price volatility later Wednesday. (Ogutier/Pixabay)

Markets

Crypto prices again muted as gold surges to new record, U.S. stocks advance

Bitcoin for the moment was unable to hold the $90,000 level reached prior to the U.S. market open.

Gold outperforms bitcoin

Finance

ETHZilla sells $74.5 million of ether in effort to trim debt load

This is the company's second sale of part of its ETH treasury, following a $40 million sale in October to fund share repurchases.

Ethereum Logo (Midjourney / Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

CME loses top spot to Binance in bitcoin futures open interest as institutional demand wanes

Behind the move is a sharp narrowing in the profitability of the basis trade, in which traders attempt to capture a spread by buying spot bitcoin while selling BTC futures.

BTC Futures OI (Glassnode)

Advertisement

Markets

Hut 8’s AI data center deal is bigger than meets the eye: Benchmark lifts price target to $85

Shares of the bitcoin miner jumped higher last week on its $7 billion pact with Google-backed Fluidstack.

Bitcoin miners (Shutterstock)

Markets

Aptos Gains 4.5% to $1.63, outpacing broader crypto market

The APT token has support at $1.59 and resistance at $1.65.

Aptos (APT) price chart