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

History Suggests Bitcoin Likely to Catch Up as it Again Lags S&P 500

While bitcoin and the S&P 500 often trend together, they periodically diverge during bull cycles.

BTC (TradingView)

Finance

Morgan Stanley Crypto Trading Ambitions Drawing Nearer: Bloomberg

The bank will partner with Zerohash to let clients trade BTC, ETH and SOL starting in early 2026, the report said.

Morgan Stanley (Shutterstock)

Markets

Fold Teaming With Stripe for Its Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card

The card will run on the Visa network and offers 2% in rewards, with potential for that to rise to as high as 3.5%.

(stevepb/Pixabay)

Markets

Semler Scientific Still Has Nearly 170% Upside After Strive Buyout Deal: Benchmark

Semler (SMLR) rose to just $32.06 yesterday even as the implied acquisition value was above $86, an unusually wide arbitrage spread, said analyst Mark Palmer.

(Christian Dubovan/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

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Finance

OKX Offers 4.1% Yield on USDG as Stablecoin Competition Heats Up

OKX is responding to intensifying competition for stablecoin dominance, describing stablecoins as crypto's "connective tissue"

OKX founder Star Xu (OKX)

Finance

Anthony Scaramucci Involved as AgriFORCE One Rebrands to an AVAX Treasury Company; Shares Rise 132%

AgriFORCE (AGRI) is to be renamed AVAX One with plans to raise $550 million to pursue a Avalanche treasury strategy.

Avalanche token

Finance

PayPal Ventures Invests in Stable to Expand PYUSD Reach

The move will unlock new commerce use cases, particularly in emerging markets where dollar-based payments have the biggest impact.

Pile of cash. (Emilio Takas/Unsplash)

Finance

Plasma Unveils First Stablecoin-Native Neobank, Targeting Emerging Markets

The rollout comes ahead of Plasma’s mainnet beta launch on September 25.

Plasma (Ramon Salinero/Unsplash)

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Markets

Strive to Buy Semler Scientific in First Merger of Bitcoin Treasury Companies

The all-stock deal will have combined company holding nearly 11,000 bitcoin.

Business deal handshake (Radission US/Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

Strategy Added 850 Bitcoin for Nearly $100M Last Week

The relatively small purchase was mostly funded through common stock sales.

Strategy Executive Chaiman Michael Saylor (Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified by CoinDesk)